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ABRAHAM LINCOLN S 
SPEECHES 

COMPLETE 
FROM HIS FIRST SPEECH IN PAPPSVILLE, ILL. 1832, TO HIS 
LAST ADDRESS IN WASHINGTON, APRIL II, 1865; 
INCLUDING CONGRESSIONAL SPEECHES; CELE- 
BRATED DEBATES WITH SENATOR DOUGLAS; 
^^ SPEECHES ON HIS WAY FROM SPRING- 

I FIELD TO WASHINGTON; IN- 

- AUGURALS; WONDERFUL 

ADDRESS AT GETTYS- 
BURG, ETC. 
ETC. 

CHRONOLOGICALLY ARRANGED 
AND 

/' r 
ILLUSTRATSfo 

\ FES r 1892 

"And that the Government of the people, by^tte people, and fo^'t'^' 
.eople, shall not pensh from the earth. ■■_L:.coL.. in Getfysburg address 

- ^ EDITED BY 

J. B. McCLURE, M. A. 

Compiler of ..Lincoln's Stories;- "Gen Garfield, from Cabin to the 

S et^L^^^^^^^^ ;^^^^^^-°fI°g-oll;".MoodysAnecdotes;--Storiesand 
Sketches of Gen, Grant;'' "Edison and His Inventions;" "Poetic Pearls" etc 




CHICAGO 

Rhodes & McClure Publishing Co. 
1891 



v^HGalNlA^^A 



Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1891, by 

Rhodes & McClure Publishing Company, 
In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington. 



All Rights reserved. 



/ 



& 



For the first time — strange to say — and in this vohime, 
are presented to the pubhc, the speeches of Abraham 
Lincoln, as full and complete as is possible for any one 
to collate them; and in this form we gladly dedicate 
them to all lovers of liberty, and place them in her ma- 
jestic temple, where they will certainly impart more glory 
than they can possibly receive. 

"Lincoln," says Secretary Usher, "was one of the 
greatest men who ever lived. It has now been many 
years since I was in his Cabinet ^ ^^ but his extraordinary 
personality is one of the most distinct things in my 
memory." "The name of Lincoln" says Merl de Aubigne, 
"will remain one of the greatest that history has to in- 
scribe on its annals." "Of all the men I ever met," said 
Gen. Sherman, "Lincoln seemed to possess more of the 
elements of greatness, combined with goodness, than any 
other." "Lincoln," says Emilo Castelar, "is the hum- 
blest of the humble before his conscience, the greatest of 
the great before history." 

"The greatest man of rebellion times/' says Gen. 
Longstreet, "the one matchless among forty millions for 

(4) 



PREFACE. 5 

the peculiar difficulties of the period." "He believed in 
the great laws of truth," said the Hon. Leonard Swett, 
"and the rigid discharge of duty, accountability to God, 
the ultimate triumph of the right, and the overthrow of 
wrong." "A great and powerful lover of mankind," says 
a biographer, "especially of those not favored by fortune." 
"Lincoln," said Gen. Grant, after having met the rulers 
of almost every civilized country in the world, "impresses 
me as the greatest intellectual force with which I have 
ever come in contact." 

Abraham Lincoln, in his great speeches, still lives, 
and must forever live as a power for good among men. 
Whatever may attach to his mere biography, that reveals 
a life of struggle, and disadvantage in early years — un- 
paralleled in fact, in this respect — the truth is, the 
MAN LINCOLN is not in the "early cabin home," but in 
words that never die, in the compiled utterances of this 
volume, that reveal and perpetuate the soul life of him 
who spoke so often, so fully, and truly, of life, liberty, 
and the pursuit of happiness, and of a government "that 
is of the people, by the people, and for the people!" 

J. B. McCLURE. 

Chicago, July 4, 1891. 




Lincoln's First Speech : _ _ _ 

Showing His Hand : _ _ _ - 

Forquer's Lightning Rod Struck : 
The Perpetuity of Our Free Institutions 
First Speech in the Supreme Court : 
Exculpating THE Whigs : 
National Banks vs. Sub-Treasury : 
The Mexican War : _ _ - - 

The Issue, ------ 

Claim Against Claim, - - - - 

The So-called Treaty, - - - - 

A Singular Fact, - - - - - 

A Feverish Dream, - . - - 

How Shall the War Terminate ? 
Speech on Internal Improvements : 

General Positions, - - - - 

Improvements on the Mississippi River, - 
Tonnage Duties, - - - - - 

"I shall never get 'em on," - - - 

The General Proposition, 

Improvements, _ - - - - 

Speech om the Presidency and Politics : 
The National Issue, - - - - 

A Presidency for the People, - - - 

[6] 



17 

17 
18 

19 
23 
23 
24 
28 

30 
32 
33 
36 
39 
41 
44 
46 

49 
55 
56 
57 
58 
62 

64 
65 



CONTENTS. / 

Gen. Taylor and the Wilirot Proviso, - - 68 

Platforms, ------- yo 

Henry Clay, - - - - - - - 71 

Lincoln as a Military Hero, - - - - 72 

Physical Capacities of Gen, Cass, - - - 79 

Clay and Webster each loses a Son in the War, yy 

An Important Distinction, - - - - y^ 

The Missouri Compromise : - - - - 80 

The Great Northwest, ----- 83 

Valuable History, ------ 84 

New Mexico, Utah and California, - - - 86 

How California was kept out of the Union, - 88 

The Compromise of 1850, - - - - 89 

Kansas and the Repeal, - - - - 90 

Lincoln's Objection to Slavery, - - - 91 

Lincoln's Views, ------ 92 

The Arguments, ------ 94 

What Lincoln Voted For, - - - - 96 

Congress Said *'No," ----- 99 

''The Stake Played For," - - _ _ 104 

Human Sympathy, ----- 107 

The Sacred Right of Self Government, - - 109 

A Whole Man or a Half Man, - - - 116 

The Preservation of Our Liberties, - - - 117 

You Cannot Repeal Human Nature, - - 118 

Bowie Knives and Six-Shooters, - - - 119 

Standby the Right, - - - - - 123 

A String of Important Facts, - - - 124 

The Ordinance of '87, - - - - - 128 

How Illinois came into the Union, - - - 129 

The Age is Not Dead : - - - - - 139 



J5 CONTENTS. 

The World Moves, - - - - - I39 

The Ballot vs. the Bullet : - - - - i39 

Let There be Peace, - - - = - 140 

In Reply TO Judge Douglas : - - - - 141 

Kansas, - - - - - - - 143 

Gen. Jackson, - - - - - - 146 

The Declaration of Independence, - - 150 

The Whole Human Family, - - - - 152 

* 'All Men are Created Equal," - - - 153 

Firing Solid Shot at Douglas, - - -154 

Lincoln "Linked to Truth :" - - - 160 

"The House Divided Against Itself Speech :" 161 

A Few Important Facts, - - - - 162 

Voting it Up or Voting it Down, - - - 164 

Working Points, - - - -- - - 165 

A String of Facts, - - - - - 166 

Power of State, - - - - - - 168 

"A Living Dog is Better tiian a Dead Lion," - 170 

But We Shall Not Fail ; the Victory is Sure, - 171 

Lincoln's Reply to Douglas in Chicago : - 173 

The Alleged Alliance, - - - - - 173 

What is Popular Sovereignty.^ - - - 176 

Half Slave and Half Free, - - - - 182 

Self Government, - - - - - 184 

Dred Scott Decision, - - - - - 185 

"Three Cheers for Lincoln," - - - - 188 

A Mighty Mation, - - - - - - 189 

The Sentiment of Liberty, - - - - 190 

Inequalities of THE Contest : - - - 192 

We Must Fight the Battle on Principle, - - 194 

Seven Interrogatories Answered : - - 205' 



CONTENTS. 9 

Lincoln's Position Fully Defined, - - - 208 

Lincoln's First Speech in Ohio: - - 211 

Correcting the Editor, - - - 212 

The Little Giant, - - - - - 215 

Genuine Sovereignty, - - - - - 218 

The State vs. the Territory, - - - 224 
'T Tremble for my Country when I Remember 

God is Just," -----_ 227 

What the Dash of a Pen Can Do, - - 230 
How Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, and Wis- 
consin were Admitted into the Union, - - 234 
The Constitution of the United States, - 235 
Revolutionary Heroes and Freedom, - - 236 
A Rifle Shot, - ----- - 238 

A Paradox, ______ 239 

Making the Most Money out of the Old Horse, - 240 

Squinting, _ _ ^ _ _ _ _ 241 

Constitutional Powers, _ _ _ _ 243 

Public Sentiment, - - - - - 250 

Henry Clay's Views, - - - - - 251 

Lincoln's Speech to the Kentuckians: - 253 

Shooting Over the Line, _ _ _ _ 256 

The Issue, - - - - - - - 258 

Sharers in the Declaration of Independence, - 262 

A Great Change, _ _ _ . _ 263 

A Running Fire, _ _ _ _ . 266 

Scope of the Constitution, - - _ _ 267 

What we Mean to Do, - - - - 277 

What Will You Do.? - - - - - 277 

Will you Make War? ----- 278 

Relation of Capital and Labor, _ _ _ 287 



lO CONTENTS. 

Lincoln's Experience as a Laboring Man, - 289 

Lincoln's Views on Labor, _ - - - 290 

Lincoln's Position, _ _ _ _ . 293 

Anxious for the Whole Union, _ _ _ 294 

Lincoln's First Proclamation of Freedom: - 296 

The Great Cooper Institute Speech, New York: 297 

Our Fathers and the Constitution, - - 297 

The Great Issue, _ _ _ _ - 298 

The First Congress, _ _ _ _ ^ 300 

George Washington, - - - - -301 

The Louisiana Country, _ _ _ _ 302 

Views of the Fathers, ----- 304 

Amendments to the Constitution, - - 307 

What is Conservatism? - - - - 313 

Rails, and Making Rails: _ _ - - 326 
First Talk After Reviewing Telegram of his 

Nomination for the Presidency: - - 327 
First Speech AFTER Nomination: - - - 327 
Way-Side Speeches from Springfield to Wash- 
ington: ------- 329 

Bidding Home Friends Adieu, • - - 329 

Speech at Tolono, 111., - - - - 330 

Speech at Indianapolis, - - - - 330 

Second Speech at Indianapolis, _ _ - 332 

Speech at Cincinnati, _ - _ - 334 

To the Germans, _ _ - - - 337 

Speech at Columbus, _ _ - _ 337 

Speech at Steubenville, - - - - 339 

Speech at Pittsburg, - - - - - 339 

Speech at Cleveland, .._--- 344 

Speech at Buffalo, - - - - - 347 



CONTENTS. I I 

Speech at Rochester, ----- 349 

Speech at Syracuse, - - - - - 3 50 

Speech at Albany, - - - - - 351 

Speech at Troy, - - - - - -355 

Speech at Hudson, - - - - -355 

Speech at Poughkeepsie, - - - - 35^ 

Speech at Peekskill, - - - - - 357 

Speeches in New York City, - - - - 358 

In Jersey City, ___-_- 363 

In Newark, ------- 364 

Speeches at Trenton, ----- 364 

Speeches in Philadelphia, - -" - - 368 
Speech at Lancaster, - - - = -373 

Speech at Harrisburg, - - - - - 374 

Speech at Washington,, - _ _ _ 377 

Lincoln's First Inaugural Address : - - 381 

Position Stated, ------ 382 

Union of States Perpetual, - -. - - 384 

What Shall be Done? ----- 386 

To Those Who Love the Union, - - - 387 

The Majorities vs. the Minorities, - - - 388 

We Cannot Separate, - - - - - 39i 

The People, ------- 391 

"My Countrymen One and All," - _ - 392 

Gradual Emancipation : _ - _ - 395 

Shielding Gen. McClellan : - - _ 398 

To A Deputation From Chicago : - - - 401 

The Preliminary Emancipation Proclamation : 406 

Preliminary Proclamation Speech .^ - - 410 

The FfNAL Emancipation Proclamation : - 412 

To The Working Men : - - - - - 415 



12 CONTENTS. 

To CONKLING, - - - - - - 416 

A Fourth OF July Speech: - - - --418 

Lincoln's Wonderful Speech at Gettysburg: 420 

"God Bless THE Women OF America:" - - 422 

Man Proposes and God Disposes: - - - 423 

Speech on the War: _ _ _ _ - 426 

Speech After the Battle of the Wilderness: 428 

Speech to a Delegation of Clergymen: - - 429 

Speech on his Renomination for the Presidency: 430 

Speech TO THE Ohio Delegation: - - - 431 

Response to the National League: - - 432 

On Accepting the Renomination: - - - 433 

Speech to Ohio Soldiers: - - - - 435 

To THE 148TH Ohio Regiment: - - - 437 

To THE Marylanders: - - - - - 438 

Speech on the Night of Presidential Election: 441 

Address After His Second Election: - - 442 

Gen. Sherman's March to the Sea: - - 444 

A Vase of Leaves from Gettysburg: - - 445 

Lincoln's Second Inaugural Address: - - 447 
"With Mal0.ce Towards None, with Charity for 

all," -------- 447 

Retrospective, ------ 448 

Let us Judge Not, _ - - - - 449 

Speech to the 140TH Indiana Regiment. - - 450 

On the Capture OF THE Tune "Dixie:" - - 452 

Not Wishing to Make Mistakes: - - - 453 

Lincoln's Last Speech: ----- 454 

Secretary Usher's Reminiscences of Lincoln: 461 

Lincoln's Ambition, _ _ - _ - 462 

Lincoln's Nature, ------ 462 



CONTENTS. I 3 

Lincoln and the Ladies: _ - = - 463 

Lincoln's Temper, _ _ - - - 464 

Lincoln's Sadness, _ _ = - - 465 

Lincoln's Kindness, - - - - - 4^5 

Seward and Lincoln, ----- 466 

How Lincoln Became President, - - - 4^7 

Careless of His Life, . _ - - - 468 

Lincoln's Plan of Reconstruction, - : 468 

The Assassination of President Lincoln: - 469 

The Effects of the President's Death, - - 4/2 

Funeral Ceremonies, ----- - 475 





O infers V5^^^!^ERi|5-<" K'^^ ^ 

No- 
Abraham Lincoln, — 1860, First Campaign Photo. .. i 
Abraham Lincoln, — 1860, A Favorite Photograph 

with Mr. Lincoln's Intimate Friends 2 

A. Lincoln, the i6th President of the United 

States 3 

Birth Place of Abraham Lincoln, 4 

Lincoln's Early Home in Kentucky, 5 

Lincoln's Early Home in Indiana, 6 

Lincoln's Early Home in Illinois 7 

John Hanks, 8 

Mrs. Sarah Bush Lincoln, — Lincoln's Stepmother,. . .9 

Lincoln's Residence at Springfield, 111 10 

Old State House, Where Lincoln had a Law Office 

and Headquarters in i860, 11 

Lincoln's Law Office Book Case, and Library, . . . . 12 

Lincoln's Law Office Chair, 13 

Lincoln's Law Office Inkstand, 14 

W. S. Herndon, — Lincoln's Law Partner, Spring- 
field, 111., .15 

Tomb of Lincoln's Father, Thomas, near Farming- 
ton, Coles County, 111. , 16 

Wigwam Building, Chicago, where Mr. Lincoln 
Was Nominated in 1860 for the Presidency, 17 

(14) 



illustrations; 15 

Passenger Station, Great Western Railway, Spring- 
field, Where Lincoln Delivered his Farewell 

Speech, Feb. 12th, 1861, 18 

Lincoln Raising the old Flag at Independence 

Hall, Philadelphia, 19 

Inauguration of President Lincoln at Washington, 

1861, 20 

President Lincoln and His Family, 21 

Peterson House — Washington, 22 

Final Funeral Cermonies at Oak Ridge Cemetery, 

Springfield, 23 

Lincoln's Monument in Oak Ridge Cemetery, 

Springfield, 24 

Groups of Statuary, etc., Lincoln's Monument, 25 





ABRABAM LINCOLN. 

THE LAWra*. 



i 




ABRAHAM LINCOLN, — 1860. 

"One day," says the Artist — Mr. Hesler, of Chicago — "when it was 
known that Mr. Lincoln might be a candidate for the Presidency, some 
of his Chicago friends brought him into my gallery for a picture. Mr. 
Lincoln could not understand it, and insisted that a photograph of as 
homely a man as he was, could not be of any consequence, but he finallv 
took the chair, with the above result, — the first campaign photograph." 




ABRAHAM LINCOLN, I 860. 

"Come down to Springfield," said Mr. Lincoln, jocosely to his Chicago 
artist "and I will dress up and you may get a better picture," — referring 
to the one Mr. Hesler had taken as the first campaign photo. Accordingly 
later on, Mr. Hesler went down to Springfield and found Mr. Lincoln 
"dressed up" as shown in the above photograph taken from the original 
negative. It is a favorite picture. 





// 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

The 1 6th President of the United States. 




EARLY HOME OF A. LINCOLN, NEAR ELIZABETHTOWN, KY. 

"His Father built this Cabin and moved into it when Abraham was an infant, and 

resided there till he was seven years of age when he removed to Indiana." 




LINCOLN S EARLY HOME IN ILLINOIS. 
Located in Macon County in the Sangamon Valley about ten miles from 
Decatur. It was while living here that Lincoln and John Hanks split 
several thousand rails. 




JOHN HANKS, 

Lincoln's Rail Splitting Companion. 




■mM^'w^^^p 



MRS. SARAH BUSH LINCOLN. 

Lincoln's Beloved Stepmother. 

Lincoln's love for his second mother was most filial and affectionate. 
In a letter of Nov. 4, 1851, just after the death of his father, he writes 
to her as follows: 

"Dear Mother: 

Chapman tells me he wants you to go and live with him. If I 
were you I would try it awhile. If you get tired of it (as I think you 
will not) you can return to your own home. Chapman feels very kindly 
to you; and I have no doubt he will make your situation very pleasant. 

Sincerely your son, 

A. Lincoln." 




Lincoln's law office library, book case, desk and 

GHAIR; SPRINGFIELD, ILL. 




Lincoln's LxWV office chair, spkingfield, ill. 




Lincoln's law office inkstand, Springfield, ill. 




W. H. HERNDON, 

Lincoln's Law Partner, Springfield, 111 

It was Mr. Lincoln's intention to return from Washington and con- 
tinue the practice of law with Mr. Herndon. In their last interview in 
the office, referring to their sign-board, Lincoln said: "Let it hang there 
undisturbed. Give our clients to understand that the election of a Presi- 
dent makes no change in the firm of Lincoln and Herndon. If I live I'm 
coming back sometime, and then we'll go right on practicing law as if 
nothing had ever happened." 




TOMB OF Lincoln's father, at farmington, ill. 




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PETERSON HOUSE WASHINGTON. 




LINCOLN S TOMB IN OAK RIDGE CEMETERY, SPRINGFIELD. 




GROUPS OF STATUARY, ETC., LINCOLN'S MONUMENT 



LINCOLN'S SPEECHES, 



COMPLETE, FROM BOYHOOD TO THE GRAVE, 



LINCOLN'S FIRST SPEECH. 

[Delivered in 1832, at Pappsville, near Springfield, 111., just after the 
close of a " public sale," at which time and place, speaking, in those .early- 
days, -was in order, Mr. Lincoln, at this time was only 23 years of age. 
Being loudly called for, he mounted a stump, and spoke as follows:] 

Gentlemen and Fellow-Citizens: — I presume you 
all know who I am. I am humble Abraham Lincoln. I 
have been solicited by many friends to become a candi- 
date for the legislature. My politics are short and sweet, 
like the old woman's dance. I am in favor of a National 
Bank. I am in favor of the internal improvement sys- 
tem, and a high protective tariff. These are my senti- 
ments, and political principles. If elected, I shall be 
thankful; if not, it will be all the same. 

SHOWING HIS HAND. 

[ Delivered at New Salem, 111. June 13, 1836, to the voters of Sanga- 
mon county. 111., after being called upon to " show his hand." ] 

Fellow-Citizens: — The candidates are called upon, 
I see, to show their hands. Here is mine. I go for all 

(17) 



I8 

sharing the privileges of government who assist in bear- 
ing its burdens. Consequently, I go for -admitting all the 
whites to the rights of suffrage who pay taxes or bear 
arms, by no means excluding the females. 

If elected, I shall consider the whole people of Sanga- 
mon county my constituents, as well those who op- 
pose, as those who support me. While acting as their 
Representative, I shall be governed by their will on all 
subjects upon which I have the means of knowing what 
their will is; and upon all others, I shall do what my 
judgment tells me will best advance their interests. 

Whether elected or not, I go for distributing the pro- 
ceeds of the sales of the public lands to the several 
States, to enable our State, in common with others, to 
dig canals and construct railroads without borrowing 
money and paying the interest on it. If alive on the first 
day in November, I shall vote for Hugh L. White for 
President. 



FORQUER'S LIGHTNING ROD IS STRUCK. 

[ Lincoln's opponent for the Legislature in 1836 was the Hon. Geo. 
Forquer, of Springfield, 111., who was celebrated for having "changed his 
coat" politically, and as having introduced the first and only lightning-rod 
in Springfield at this time. He said in a speech, in Lincoln's presence, 
' ' this young man (Lincoln) would have to be taken down, and I am sorry 
the task devolves upon me;" and then proceeded to try and " take him 
down." Mr. Lincoln made a reply, and in closing, turned to the crowd 
and made these remarks: 

Fellow^-Citizens: — It is for you, not for me, to say 
whether I am up, or down. The gentlemen has alluded 
to my being a young man; I am older in years than I am 
in the tricks and trades of politicians. I desire to live, 
and I desire place and distinction as a politician; but L 



THE PERPETUITY OF OUR FREE INSTITUTIONS. 19 

would rather die now than, like the gentleman, live to 
see the day that I would have to erect a lightning rod to 
protect a guilty conscience from an offended God. 



THE PERPETUITY OF OUR FREE INSTI- 
TUTIONS . 

[Delivered before the Springfield, 111. Lyceum, in January, 1837 when 
28 years of age. Coming, as he did upon this occasion, before a literary 
society, Mr. Lincoln's Websterian diction is more observable.] 

Ladies and Gentlemen: — In the great journal ot 
things happening under the sun, we, the American peo- 
ple, find our account running under date of the nine- 
teenth century of the Christian era.// We find ourselves 
in the peaceful possession of the fairest portion of the 
earth, as regards extent of territory, fertility of soil, and 
salubrity of climate. We find ourselves under the gov- 
ernment of a system of political institutions conducing 
more essentially to the ends of civic and religious liberty 
than any of which history of former times tell us. 

We, when mounting the stage of existence, found our- 
selves the legal inheritors of these fundamental blessings. 
We toiled not in the acquisition or establishment of 
them; they are a legacy bequeathed to us by a once hardy, 
brave and patriotic, but now lamented and departed race 
of ancestors. Theirs was the task (and nobly they per- 
formed it) to possess themselves, and, through themselves, 
us, of this goodly land to uprear upon its hills and val- 
leys, a political edifice of liberty and equal rights; 'tis 
ours to transmit these — the former unprofaned by the 
foot of an intruder, the latter undecayed by the lapse of 
time and untorn by usurpation — to the generation that 



20 LINCOLN'S SPEECHES COMPLETE. 

fate shall pi ^rmit the world to know. This task, grati- 
tude to our iathers, justice to ourselves, duty to posterity 
— all impera tively require us faithfully to perform. 

How then shall we perform it ? At what point shall 
we expect the approach of danger ? Shall we expect that 
E»me trans-Atlantic military giant to step the ocean and 
crush us at a blow ? Never! All the armies of Europe, 
Asia and Africa co mbined, with all the treasures of the 
earth (our own ex.cepted) in their military chest, with a 
Bonaparte for a "commander, could not, by force, take a 
-drink from the Ohio, or make a track on the Blue Ridge, 
in a trial of a thousand years. 'I 

At what point, then, is this approach of danger to' be 
expected 1 I answer, if it ever reach us, it must spring 
up amongst us. It cannot come from abroad. If de- 
struction be our lot, we must ourselves be its author and 
finisher. As a nation of freemen, we must live through 
all time or die by suicide. ' ' 

I hope I am not over-wary; but, if I am not, there is 
even now something of ill omen amongst us. I mean 
the increasing disregard for law which pervades the 
country, the disposition to substitute the wild and furi- 
ous passions in lieu of the sober judgement of courts, 
and the worse than savage mobs for the executive minis- 
ters of justice. This disposition is awfully fearful in any 
community, and that it now exists in ours, though grat- 
ing to our feelings to admit it, it would be a violation of 
truth and an insult to deny, ^i Accounts of outrages com- 
mitted by niobs form the every day news of the times. 
They have pervaded the country from New England to 
Louisiana they are neither peculiar to the eternal snows 



„ THE PERPETUITY OF OUR FREE INSTITUTIONS. 21 

of the former, nor the burning sun of the latter. They 
are not the creature of chmate, neithf ;r are they confined 
to the slave-holding or non-slaveho\ding States. Alike 
they spring up among the pleasunj-hunting masters of 
Southern slaves and the order-lovir ig citizens of the land 
of steady habits. Whatever, ther^i, their cause may be, 
it is common to the whole courjl-ry. 

Many great and good men, su fficiently qualified for QMy 
task they may undertake, may ever be found, whose am- 
bition would aspire to nothing beyond a seat in Congress, 
a gubernatorial, or a presidential chair; but such belong 
not to the family of the lion, or the tribe of the eagle. 

What! Think you these places would satisfy an Alex- 
ander, a Caesar, Qr a Napoleon .? Never! Towering- 
genius disdains a beaten path. It seeks regions hitherto' 
unexplored. It sees no distinction in adding story to 
story upon the monuments of fame, erected to the memo- 
ry of others. It denies that it is glory enough to serve 
under any chief. It scorns to tread in the footpaths o£ 
any predecessor, however illustrious. It thirsts and burns 
for distinction, and if pos sible, it will have it, whether at 
the expense of emancipating the slaves, or enslaving free- 
men. 

Another reason which once was, but which, to the 
same extent, is now uo more, has done much in main- 
taining our institutions thus fan I mean the powerful 
influence which the interesting scenes of the Revolution 
had upon the passions of the people, as distinguished 
from their judgment. 

But these histories are gone. They can be read no 
more forever. They were a fortress of strength. But 



22 Lincoln's speeches complete. 

what the invading foeman could never do, the silent ar- 
tillery of time has done — the levelling of its w^alls. They 
were a forest of giant oaks; but the all-resistless hurricane 
has swept over them and left only here and there a lone 
trunk, despoiled of its verdure, shorn of its foliage, un- 
shading and unshaded, to murmur in a few more gentle 
breezes and to combat with its mutilated limxbs a few 
more rude storms, then to sink and be no more. They 
were the pillars of the temple of liberty; and now that 
they have crumbled away, that temple must fall, unless 
we, the descendants, supply the places with pillars hewn 
from the same solid quarry of sober reason. 

Passion has helped us, but can do so no more. It will 
in future be our enemy. 

'Reason — cold, calculatmg, unimpassioned reason — 
must furnish all the materials for our support and de- 
fense. Let those materials be moulded into general in- 
telligence, sound morality, and in particular, a reverence 
for the constitution and the laws; and then our country 
shall continue to improve, and our nation, revering his 
name, and permitting no hostile foot to pass or desecrate 
his resting place, shall be that to hear the last trump 
that shall awaken our Washington. 

Upon these let the proud fabric of freedom rest as the 
rock of its basis, and as truly as has been said of the only 
greater institution, **The gates of hell shall not prevail 
against it." 



LINCOLN'S FIRST SPEECH IN THE SUPREME 

COURT. 

[The case being called, Mr. Lincoln appeared for appellant, and ac- 
cording to Judge Treat, spoke as follows:] 

Your Honor: — This is the first case I have ever had 
in this court, and I have examined it with great care. As the 
court will perceive by looking at the abstract of the 
record, the only question in the case is one of authority. 
I have not been able to find any authority sustaining my 
side of the case, but I have found several cases directly 
in point on the other side. I will now give the citations 
and then submit the case. 



EXCULPATING THE WHIGS FROM THE 
CHARGE OF ARISTOCRACY. 

[Being so much as is on record of a reply to Col. Dick Taylor, a Dem- 
ocrat, who had characterized the Whigs as being pretentious "lords," and 
very aristocratic, etc., delivered, says Hon. Ninian W. Edwards, in 1840: 

Gentlemen: — While he (Col. Taylor) was making 
these charges against the whigs riding in fine carriages, 
wearing ruffled shirts, kid gloves, massive gold watch 
chains, with large seals, and flourishing a heavy gold- 
headed cane, I (Lincoln) was a poor boy, hired on a flat- 
boat at eight dollars a month, and had only one pair of 
breeches, and they were buckskin — and if you know the 
nature of buckskin, when wet, and dried by the sun, they 
shrink — and mine kept shrinking until they left several 
inches of my legs bare between the tops of my socks and 
the lower part of my breeches; and whilst I was growing 
taller, they were becoming shorter, and so much tighter, 

(23) 



24 Lincoln's speeches complete. 

that they left a blue streak around my legs that can be 
seen to this day. If you call this aristocracy, I plead 
guilty to Uie charge. 



NATIONAL BANK VS. SUB-TREASURY. 

[Delivered in the Second Presbyterian Church, Springfield, Ills., and 
published in the "Sangamon Journal, " March 6, 1840. The debaters on 
the question were Messrs. Logan, Baker, Browning and Lincoln, against 
Douglas, Calhoun, Laraborn and Thomas:] 

Fellow Citizens: — It is peculiarly embarrassing to 
me to attempt a continuance of the discussion, on this 
evening, which has been conducted in this hall on sever- 
al preceding ones. It is so, because on each of these 
evenings there was a much fuller attendance than now, 
without any reason for its being so, except the greater 
interest the community feel in the speaker, who ad- 
dressed them then, than they do in him who addresses 
them now. I am, indeed, apprehensive that the few 
who have attended, have done so more to spare me of 
mortification, than in the hope of being interested in 
anything I may be able to say. This circumstance casts 
a damp upon my spirits which I am sure I shall be unable 
to overcome during the evening. 

The subject heretofore and now to be discussed, is the 
sub-treasury scheme of the present administration, as a 
means of collecting, safe-keeping, transferring, and dis- 
bursing the revenues of the nation as contrasted with a 
National Bank for the same purpose. Mr. Douglas has 
said that we (the Whigs) have not dared to meet them 
(the Locos) in argument on this question. I protest 



NATIONAL BANK VS. SUB-TREASURY. 25 

'against this assertion. I say, we have again and again, 
during this discussion, urged facts and arguments against 
the sub-treasury which they have neither dared to deny 
nor attempted to answer. But lest some may be led to 
believe that we really wish to avoid the question, I now 
propose, in my humble way, to urge these arguments 
again; at the same time begging the audience to mark 
well the positions I shall take, and the proofs I shall offer 
to sustain them, and that they will not allow Mr. Doug- 
las or his friends to escape the force of them by a round 
of groundless assertions that we dare not meet them in 
argument. 

First. It will injuriously affect the community by its 
operation on the circulating medium. 

Second. It will be a more expensive fiscal agent. 
Third. It will be a less secure depository for the pub- 
lic money. 

Mr. Lamborn insists tiiat the difference between the 
Van Buren party and the Whigs is, that although the 
former sometimes err in practice, they are always correct 
in principle, whereas the latter are wrong in principle; and 
the better to impress this proposition he uses a fig- 
urative expression in these words: '' The Democrats are 
vulnerable in the heel, but they are sound in the heart 
and head." The first branch of the figure — that the 
Democrats are vulnerable in the heel — I admit is not 
merely figurative, but literally true. Who that looks for 
a moment at their Swartwouts, their Prices, their Har- 
ringtons, and their hundreds of others scampering away 
with the public money to Texas, to Europe, and to every 
spot on earth where a villian may hope to find refuge 
from justice, can at all doubt that they are most distress- 



26 LINCOLN S SPEECHES COMPLETE. 

ingly affected in their heels with a species of running 
itch. It seems that this malady of their heels operates 
on the sound headed and honest hearted creatures very 
much like the cork leg in the comic song did on its own- 
er, which when he had once got started on it, the more 
he tried to stop it, the more it would run away. At 
the hazard of wearing this point threadbare, I will 
relate an anecdote which is too strikingly in point, to 
be omitted. 

A witty Irish soldier was always boasting of his brav- 
ery when no danger was near, who invaribly retreated 
without orders at the first charge of the engagement, be- 
ing asked by the captain why he did so, replied, *' Cap- 
tain, I have as brave a heart as Julius Caesar ever had, 
but somehow or other, whenever danger approaches, 
my cowardly legs will run away with it. " So with Mr. 
Lamborn's party. They take the public money into their 
own hands for the most laudible purpose that wise heads 
and willing hearts can dictate; but, before they can pos- 
sibly get it out, again, there rascally vulnerable heels 
will run away with them. 

Mr. Lamborn refers to the late elections in the States, 
and from the results, confidentially predicts every State 
in the Union will vote for Mr. Van Buren at the next 
Presidential election. Address that argument to cowards 
and knaves; with the free and the brave it will affect 
nothing. It may be true; if it must, let it. Many free 
countries have lost their liberty, and ours may lose hers; 
but, if she shall, be it my proudest plume, not that I was 
the last to desert, but that I never deserted her. I know 
that the great volcano at Washington, aroused and di- 
rected hy the civil spirits that reign there, is belching forth 



NATIONAL BANK VS. SUB-TREASURY. 2/ 

the laws of political corruption in a current broad and 
deep, which is sweeping with frightful velocity over the 
whole length and breadth of the land, bidding fair to 
leave unscathed no green spot or living thing; while on 
its bosom are riding, like demons on the wave of hell, 
the imps of that evil spirit, fiendishly taunting all those 
who dare resist its destroying course with hopelessness of 
their efforts; and knowing this, I cannot deny that all 
may be swept away. Broken by it, I, too, may be; bow 
to it, I never will. 

The probability that we may fall in the struggle ought 
not to deter us from the support of a course we believe 
to be just. It shall not deter me. 

If ever I feel the soul within me elevate and expand 
to those dimensions, not wholly unworthy of its 
Almighty architect, it is when I contemplate the cause of 
my country deserted by all the world beside, and I 
standing up boldly alone, hurling defiance at her victori- 
ous opposers. 

Here, without contemplating the consequences, before 
Heaven and in the face of the world, I swear enternal fealty 
to the just cause, as I deem it, of the land of my life, my 
liberty, and my love. And who that thinks with me will not 
fearlessly adopt that oath that I take ? Let none falter 
who thinks he is right, and we may succeed. But if 
after all, we may fail, be it so; we still shall have the 
proud consolation of saying to our conscience, and to the 
departed shade of our country's freedom, that the cause 
approved of our judgment and adored of our hearts in 
disaster, in chains, in torture, in death, we never faltered 
in defending. 



THE MEXICAN WAR. 

[Delivered in Congress, January 12, 1848.] 

Mr. Chairman: — Some, if not all the gentlemen on 
the other side of the House, who have addressed the 
committee within the last two days, have spoken rather 
complainingly, if I have rightly understood them, of the 
vote given a week or ten days ago, declaring that the 
war with Mexico was unnecessarily and unconstitutional- 
ly commenced by the President. I admit that such a. 
vote should not be given in mere party wantonness, and 
that the one given is justly censurable, if it have no oth- 
er or better foundation. I am one of those who joined 
in that vote; and did so under my best impression of the 
truth of the case. How I got this impression, and how 
it may be possibly removed, I will now try to show. 

When the war -began, it was my opinion that all 
those who, because of knowing too little, or because of 
knowing too much, could not conscientiously approve the 
conduct of the President (inthe beginning of it), should, 
nevertheless, as good citizens and patriots, remain silent 
on the point, at least till the war should be ended. Some 
leading Democrats, including ex-President Van Buren, 
have taken this same view, as I understand them; and I 
adhered to it, and acted upon it, until since I took my 
seat here; and think I should still adhere to it, were it 
not that the President and his friends will not allow it to 
be so. 

Besides the continual effort of the President to argue- 
every silent vote given for supplies into an endorsement 
of the justice and wisdom of his conduct; besides that 

(28) 



THE MEXICAN WAR. 29 

singurlarly candid paragraph in his late message, in 
which he tells us that Congress, with great unanimity 
(only two in the senate and fourteen in the House dis- 
senting) had declared that * ' by the act of the Republic 
of Mexico, a state of war exists between that Govern- 
ment and the United States, "When the same journals that 
informed him of this, also informed him that, when that 
declaration stood disconnected from the question of sup- 
plies, sixty-seven in the House, and not fourteen, merely, 
voted against it; besides this open attempt to prove by 
telling the truth, what he could not prove by telling the 
whole truth, demanding of all who will not permit them- 
selves to be misrepresented, in justice to themselves, 
to speak out; beside^s all this, one of my colleagues (Mr. 
Richardson), at a very early day in the session, brought 
in a set of resolutic^ns, expressly endorsing the original 
justice of the war on the part of the President. 

Upon these resolutions, when they shall be put on 
their passage, I shall be compelled to vote; so that I can- 
not be silent if I would. Seeing this, I went about pre- 
paring myself to .give the vote understandingly, when it 
should come. I carefully examined the President's mes- 
sage, to ascertain what he had himself said and proved 
upon the point. The result of this examination was to 
make the impression, that, taking for true all the Presi- 
dent states as facts, he falls far short of proving his jus- 
tification; and that the President would have gone far- 
ther with his proofs if it had not been for the small matter 
that truth would not permit him. Under the impression 
thus made I gave 'the vote before mentioned. I propose 
now to give, concisely, the process of examination I 



30 Lincoln's speeches complete. 

made and how I reached the conclusion that I did. 

The President, in his first message of May, 1846, de- 
clares that the soil was ours on which hostilities were 
commenced by Mexico; and he repeats that declaration, 
almost in the same language, in each successive annual 
message — thus showing that he esteems that point a 
highly essential one. In the importance of that point I 
entirely agree with the President. To my judgment, it is 
the very point upon which he should be justified or con- 
demned. In his message of December, 1846, it seems 
to have occurred to him, as is certainly true, that title, 
ownership of soil, or anything else, is not a simple fact; 
and that it was incumbent upon him to present the facts 
from which he concluded the soil was ours on which the 
first blood of war was shed. 

Accordingly, a little below the middle of page twelve 
in the message last referred to, he enters upon the task; 
forming an issue and introducing testimony, extending 
the whole to a little below the middle of page fourteen. 
Now, I propose to try to show that the whole of this — 
issue and evidence — is, from beginning to end, the 
sheerest deception. 

THE ISSUE. 

The issue, as he presents it, is in the following 
words: 

** But there are those who, conceding all this to be 
true, assume the ground that the true western boundary 
of Texas is the Nueces, instead of the Rio Grande; and 
that, therefore, in marching our army to the east bank 
of the latter river, we passed the Texan line, and in- 
vaded the territory of Mexico." 



THE MEXfCAN WAR. 3>^' 

Now this issue is made of two affirmatives and no neg-] 
atives. The' iiiain deception of it is, to assume as trme 
that one river or the Othef i^ necessarily the boundary, 
and cheats the superficial thinker entirely out of the 
idea that possibly the boundary is somewhere betweem 
the two, and not actually at either. A further decep- 
tion is, that it will let in evidence which a true issae 
would exclude. A true issue, made by the President,, 
would be about as follows: 

*' I say the soil was ours on which the first blood was. 
shed; and there are those who say it was not." 

I now proceed to examine the President's evidence, as. 
applicable to such an issue. When that evidence is. 
analyized, it is all included in the following propo- 
sitions: 

I That the Rio Grande was the western boundary of 
Louisiana, as we purchased it of France in 1803. 

2. That the Republic of Texas always claimed the 
Rio Grande as her western boundary. 

3. That by various acts, she had claimed it oa 

paper. 

4. That Santa Anna, in his treaty with Texas, recog- 
nized the Rio Grande as her boundary. 

5. That Texas before, and the United States after, 
annexation, had exercised jurisdiction beyond the 
Nueces, between the two rivers. 

6. That our Congress understood the boundary of 
Texas to extend beyond the Nueces. 

Now for each of these in its turn. 

THE BOUNDARY LINE. 

His first item is, that the Rio Grande was the western 



32 Lincoln's speeches complete. 

boundary of Louisiana, as we purchased it of France in 
1803; and, seeming to expect this to be disputed, he 
argues over the amount of nearly a page to prove it 
true; at the end of which, he lets us know that, by the 
treaty of 18 19, we sold to Spain the whole country, 
from the Rio Grande eastward to the Sabine. Now, admit- 
ting for the present, that the Rio Grande was the boundary 
of Louisiana, what, under heaven, had that to do with 
the present boundary between us and Mexico ? How, 
Mr. Chairman, the line that once divided your land from 
mine can still be the boundary between us after I have 
sold my land to you, is, to me beyond all comprehension. 
And how any man, with an honest purpose only of prov- 
ing the truth, could ever have thought of introducing 
such a fact to prove such an issue, is equally incompre- 
hensible. The outrage upon common right, of seizing 
as our own what we have once sold, merely because it 
was ours before we sold it, is only equalled by the out- 
rage on common sense of any attempt to justify it. ■ 

claim against claim. 

The President's next piece of evidence is, that **The 
Republic of Texas always claimed this river (Rio Grande) 
as her western boundary." That is not true, in fact. 
Texas has claimed it, but she has not always claimed it. 
There is, at least, one distinguished exception. Her 
State Constitution — the public's most solemn and well- 
considered act — that which may, without impropriety, 
be called her last will and testament, revoking all others 
— makes no such claim. But suppose she had always 
claimed it. Has not Mexico always claimed the con- 
trary ? So that there is but claim against claim, leaving 



THE MEXICAN WAR. 33 

nothing proved until we get back of the claims, and find 
that which has the better foundation. 

THE SO-CALLED TREATY. 

Though not in the order in which the President pre- 
sents his evidence, I now consider that class of his state- 
ments, which are in substance, nothing more than that 
Texas has by various acts of her convention and Congress, 
claimed the Rio Grande as her boundary — on paper. 
I mean here what he says about the fixing of the Rio 
Grande as her boundary, in her old Constitution (not her 
State Constitution,) about forming congressional dis- 
tricts, counties, etc. Now, all this is but naked claim; 
and what I have already said about claims is applicable 
to this. If I should claim your land by word of mouth, 
that certainly would not make it mine; and if I were to 
claim it by a deed which I had made myself, and with 
which you had nothing to do, the claim would be quite 
the same in substance, or rather in utter nothingness. 

I next consider the President's statement that Santa 
Anna, in his treaty with Texas, recognized the Rio 
Grande as the Western boundary of Texas. Besides the 
position so often taken that Santa Anna, while a prison- 
er of war — a captive — could not bind Mexico by a 
treaty, which I deem conclusive; besides this, I wish to 
say something in relation to this treaty, sp called by the 
President, with Santa Anna. If any man would like to 
be amused by the sight of a little thing, which the Presi- 
dent calls by that big name, he can have it by turning to 
Niles' Register, volume 50, page 336. And if any one 
should suppose that Niles* Register is a curious reposi- 
tory of so mighty a document as a solemn treaty between 



34 ' Lincoln's speeches complete. 

nations, I can only say that I learned, to a tolerable de- 
gree of certainty, by inquiry ^at the State Department, 
that the President himself never saw it anywhere else. By 
the way, I believe I should not err if I were to declare, that 
during the first ten years of the existence of that docu- 
ment, it was never by anybody called a treaty; that it was 
never so called till the President, in his extremity, at- 
tempted by so calling it, to wring something from it in 
justification of himself in the Mexican war. It has none 
of the distinguishing features of a treaty. It does not 
call itself a treaty. Santa Anna does not therein assume 
to bind Mexico; he assumes only to act as President, 
commander-in-chief of the Mexican army and navy; stip- 
ulates that the then present hostilities should cease, and 
that he would not himself take up arms, nor influence 
the Mexican people to take up arms against Texas, dur- 
ing the war of independence. He did not recognize the 
independence of Texas; he did not assume to put an end 
to the war, but clearly indicated his expectation of its 
continuance; he did not say one word about boundary, 
and very probably never thought of it. It is stipulated 
that to prevent collisions between the armies, the Texan 
army should not approach nearer than within five 
leagues — of what is not said — but clearly from the ob- 
ject stated, it is of the Rio Grande, Now, if this is a 
treaty recognizing the Rio Grande as the boundary of 
Texas, it contains the singular feature of stipulating that 
she shall not go within five leagues of her own boundary. 

JURISDICTION. 

Next comes the evidence of Texas before annexation 
and the United States afterWard, exercising jurisdiction 



THE MEXICAN WAR. 35 

beyond the Nueces, and between the two rivers. The 
actual exercise of jurisdiction is the very class or quality 
of evidence we want. It is excellent so far as it goes; 
but does it go far enough .? He tells us it went beyond 
the Nueces, but he does not tell us it went to the Rio 
Grande. He tell us jurisdiction was exercised between 
the two rivers, but he does not tell us it was exercised 
over all the territory between them. Some simple- 
minded people think it possible to cross one river and go 
beyond without going all the way to the next; that juris- 
diction may be exercised between two rivers without 
covering all the country between them. 

I know a man, not very unlike myself, who exercises 
jurisdiction over a piece of land between the Wabash 
and the Mississippi; and yet so far is this from being all 
there is between those rivers, that it is just one hun- 
dred and fifty-two feet long by fifty feet in width, and 
no part of it much within a hundred miles of either. He 
has a neighbor between him and the Mississippi — that 
is just across the street, in that direction — whom, I am 
sure, he could neither persuade nor force to give up his 
habitation; but which, nevertheless, he could certainly 
annex, if it were to be done, by merely standing on his 
own side of the street and claiming it, or even sitting 
down and writing a deed for it. 

But next, the President tells us, the Congress of the 
United States understood the State of Texas they ad- 
mitted into the Union to extend beyond the Nueces. 
Well, I suppose they did — I certainly so understood it 
— but how far beyond.? That Congress did not under- 
stand it to extend clear to the Rio Grande, is quite cer- 



36 Lincoln's speeches complete. 

tain by the fact of their joint resolutions for admission 
expressly leaving all questions of boundary to future ad- 
justment. And, it may be added, that Texas herself 
proved to have had the same understanding of it that 
our Congress had, by the fact of the exact conformity of 
her new constitution to those resolutions. 

A SINGULAR FACT. 

I am now through the whole of the President's evi- 
dence; and it is a singular fact, that if any one should 
declare the President sent the army into the midst of a 
settlement of Mexican people, who had never submitted, 
by consent or by force to the authority of Texas or the 
United States, and that there, and thereby, the first 
blood of the war was shed, there is not one word in all 
the President has said which would either admit or deny 
the declaration. In this strange omission chiefly con- 
sists the deception of the President's evidence — an 
omission which it does not seem to me, could scarcely 
have occurred but by design. My way of living leads 
me to be about the courts of justice; and there I 
have sometimes seen a good lawyer, struggling for his 
client's neck, in a desperate case, employing every arti- 
fice to work round, befog, and cover up with many 
vv^ords some position pressed upon him by the prosecu- 
tion, which he dared not admit, and yet could not de- 
ny. Party bias may help to make it appear so; but, 
with all the allowance I can make for such bias, it still 
does appear to me that just such, and from just such 
necessity, are the President's struggles in this case. 

Sometime after my colleague (Mr. Richardson) intro- 



The MEXICAN WAR. 37 

duced the resolutions I have mentioned, I introduced a 
preamble, resolution and interrogatories, intended to draw 
the President out, if possible, on this hitherto untrodden 
ground. To show their relevancy, I propose to 
state my understanding of the true rule for ascertaining 
the boundary between Texas and Mexico. It is, that 
wherever Texas was exercising jurisdiction, was hers; 
and wherever Mexico was exercising jurisdiction, washers; 
and that whatever separated the actual exercise of juris- 
diction of the one from that of the other, was the true 
boundary between them. If, as probably true, Texas 
was exercising jurisdiction along the western bank of the 
Nueces, and Mexico was exercising it along the eastern 
bank of the Rio Grande, then neither river was the 
boundary, but the uninhabited country between the two 
was. 

The extent of our territory in that region depended 
not on any treaty-fixed boundary (for^.jio treaty had at- 
tempted it) but on revolution. ^*^ny people anywhere, 
being inclined and having the power, have the right to 
rise up and shake off the existing government, and form 
a new one that suits them better. This is a most valua- 
ble and sacred right — a right, which we hope and be 
lieve, is to liberate the world. Nor is this right confined 
to cases in which the whole people of an existing govern- 
ment may choose to exercise it. /Any portion of such 
people that can, may revolutionize, and make their own 
of so much of the territory as they inhabit. More than 
this, a majority of any portion of such people may revo* 
lutionize, putting down a minority, intermingled with, or 
near about them, who may oppose their movements. 



38 Lincoln's speeches complete. 

Such minority was precisely the case of the Tories of our 
own Revolution. It is a quality of revolutions not to go 
by old lines, or old laws; but to break up both, and make 
new ones. As to the country now in question, we bought 
it of France in 1803, and sold it to Spain in 18 19, accord- 
ing to the President's statement. After this; all Mexico, 
including Texas, revolutionized against Spain, and still 
later Texas revolutionized against Mexico. In my view, 
just so far as she carried her revolution, by obtaining the 
actual, willing or unwilling sudmission of the people, so 
far the country was hers; and no farther. 

LINCOLN DEMANDS AN ANSWER FROM THE PRESIDENT. 

Now, sir, for the purpose of obtaining the very best 
evidence as to whether Texas had actually carried out her 
revolution to the place where the hostilities of the present 
war commenced, let the President answer the interroga- 
tories I proposed, or some other similar ones. 

Let him answer fully, fairly and candidly. Let him 
answer with facts, and not with arguments. Let him 
remember he sits where Washington sat; and, so remem- 
bering, let him answer as Washington would answer. As 
a nation should not, and the Almighty will not be evad- 
ed, so let him attempt no evasion, no equivocation. 
And if, so answering, he can show that the soil was 
ours where the first blood of the war was shed — that it 
was not in an inhabited country, or, if within such, that 
the inhabitants had submitted themselves to the civil 
authority of Texas or of the United States, and that the 
same is true of the site of Fort Brown — then I am 
with him for justification. In that case, I shall be most 



THE MEXICAN WAR. 39 

happy to reverse the vote I gave honestly the other day. 

THE BLOOD OF ABEL. 

I have a selfish motive for desiring that the President 
may do this; I expect to give my votes, in connection 
with the war, which, without his so doing, will be of 
doubtful propriety, in my judgment, but which will be 
free from doubt, if he does so. But if he can not or will 
not do this — if, on any pretense, or no pretense, he 
shall refuse or omit it — then I shall be fully convinced, 
of what I more than suspect already, that he is deeply 
conscious of being in the wrong; that he feels the blood 
of Abel, is crying to heaven against him; that he ordered 
General Taylor into the midst of a peaceful Mexican set- 
tlement, purposely to bring on a war; that originally 
having some strong motive — what, I will not stop to give 
my opinion concerning — to involve the two countries in 
a war, and trusting to escape scrutiny by fixing the pub- 
lic gaze upon the exceeding brightness of military glory 
— that attractive rainbow that rises in showers of 
blood — that serpent's eye that charms to destroy — 
he plunged into it, and has swept on and on, till, disap-. 
pointed in his calculation of the case with which Mexico 
might be subdued, he now finds himself, he knows not 
where. 

A FEVERISH DREAM. 

How like the half insane mumblings of a fever dream 
is the whole war part of the message! At one time tell- 
ing us that Mexico has nothing whatever we can get but 
territory; at another, showing us how we can support 
the war by levying contributions on Mexico. At one 



40 Lincoln's speeches complete. 

time urging the national honor, the security of the future, 
the prevention of foreign interference, and even the good 
of Mexico herself, as among the objects of the w^ar; at 
another, telling us that, '' to reject indemnity by refus- 
ino- n c^^c^-'^n-n of ^'^rnfory^ would be to abandon all our 
j c.^!o che war, bearing all its ex- 

penses, without a purpose or definite object." So, then, 
the national honor, the security of the future, and every- 
thing but territorial indemnity, may be considered the 
no purpose and indefinite objects of the war! But hav- 
ing it now settled that territorial indemnity is the only 
object, we are urged to seize, by legislation here, all 
that he was content to take, a few months ago, and the 
whole province of lower California to boot,* and to still 
carry on the war — to take all we are fighting for, and still 
fight on. 

Again, the President is resolved, under all circum- 
stances, to have full territorial indemnity for the ex- 
penses of the war; but he forgets to tell us how we 
are to get the excess after those expenses shall have sur- 
passed the value of the whole of the Mexican territory. 
So, again, he insists that the separate national existence 
of Mexico shall be maintained; but he does not tell us 
how this can be done after we shall have taken all her 
territory. Lest the questions I here suggest be consider- 
ed speculative merely, let me be indulged in a moment 
in trying to show they are not. 

The war has gone on some twenty months, for the ex- 
pense of which, together with an inconsiderable old 
score, the President now claims about one-half of the 
Mexican territory, and that by far the better half, so far 



THE MEXICAN WAR. 41 

as concerns our ability to make anything out of it. It is 
comparatively uninhabited; so. that we could establish 
land offices in it, and raise some money in that way. 
But the other half is already inhabited, as I understand 
it, tolerable densely for the nature of the country; and 
all its lands, or all that are valuable, already appropria- 
ted as private property. How then are we to make any- 
thing out of these lands with this incumbrance upon 
them, or how remove the incumbrance .? I suppose no 
one will say we should kill the people, or drive them out, 
or make slaves of them, or even confiscate their prop- 
erty ! How then can we make much out of this part of 
the territory ? If the prosecution of the war has, in ex- 
ptmses, already equalled the better half of the country, 
'how long its future prosecution will be in equalling the 
less v«.luable half is not a speculative, but a practical 
question, pressing closely upon us; and yet it is a question 
which the President seems never to have thought of. 

HOW SHALL THE WAR TERMINATE.? 

As to the mode of terminating the war and securing 
peace, the President is equally vague and indefinite. First, 
it is to be done by a more vigorous prosecution of the 
war in the vital parts of the enemy's country; and, after 
.apparently talking himself tired on this point, the Presi- 
dent drops down into a half despairing tone, and tells us 
•that ' ' with a people distracted and divided by contend- 
ing factions, and a government subject to constant 
(Changes, by successive revolutions the continued success 
<oi our arms may fail to obtain a satisfactory peace. ' 
Then he suggests the propriety of wheedling the Mexi- 
can people to desert the counsels of their own leaders, 



42 Lincoln's speeches complete. 

and, trusting in our protection, to set up a government 
from which we can secure a satisfactory peace, telhng us 
that ''this may become the only mode of obtaining such 
a peace." But soon he falls into doubt of this, too, 
and then drops back on to the already half-abandoned 
ground of '' more vigorous prosecution." All this shows 
that the President is in no wise satisfied with his own 
positions. First, he takes up one, and in attempting to 
argue us into it, he argues himself out of it; then seizes 
another and goes through the same process ; and then 
confused at being unable to think of nothing new, he 
snatches up the old one again, which he has sometime 
before cast off. His mind, tasked beyond its power, is 
running hither and thither, like some tortured creature 
on a burning surface, finding no position on which it can. 
settle down and be at ease. 

A MISERABLY PERPLEXED MAN. 

Again, it is a singular omission in this; message^ 
that it nowhere intimates when the President expects 
the war to terminate. At its beginning General Scott 
was, by this same President, driven into disfavor, if not 
disgrace, for intimating that peace could not be con- 
quered in less than three or four months. But now at 
the end of about twenty months, during which time our 
arms have given us the most splendid successes — every 
department, and every part, land and water; officers and 
privates, regulars and volunteers, doing all that m.^i\ 
could do, and hundreds of things which it had ever |^^_ 
fore been thought that men could not do; after :^^M\ tjiis,;, 
this same President gives us a long mess^^ without; 
showing us that ; as to the end, he has bjrnself an imag*-- 



THE MEXICAN WAR. 



43 



inary conception. As I have said before, he knows not 
where he is. He is a bewildered, confounded, and mis- 
erably-perplexed man. God grant he may be able to 
show that there is not something about his conscience more 
painful than all his mental perplexity, 




SPEECH ON INTERNAL IMPROVEMENTS. 

[Delivered in Congress June 20, 1848.] 

Mr. Chairman: — I wish at all times in no way to 
practice fraud upon the House or the Committee, and I 
also desire to do nothing which may be very disagreea- 
ble to any of the members, I therefore state, in ad- 
vance, that my object in taking the floor is to make a 
:speech on the general subject of internal improvements; 
and if I -atm out of order in doing so, I give the Chair an 
opportunity of so deciding, and I will take my seat. 

The Chair — I will not undertake to anticipate what 
the gentleman may say on the subject of internal improve- 
ments. He will, therefore, proceed in his remarks, 
and, if any question of order shall ba made, the Chair 
will then decide it. 

THE QUESTION. 

Mr. Lincoln — At an early day of this session the 
President sent to us what may properly be called and in- 
.ternal-improvement veto message. The late Democratic 
'Conveation which sat at Baltimore, and which nomina- 
tted Generai Cass for the Presidency, adopted a set of 
ireaolutions, now called the Democratic platform, among 
which is one in these words: 

"That the Constitution does not confer upon the General Government 

(44) 



INTERNAL IMPROVEMENTS 45 

the power to commence and carry on a general system of internal im- 
provement." 

General Cass, in his letter accepting the nomination, 
holds this language: 

" I have carefully read the resolutions of the Democratic National Con- 
vention, laying down the platform of our political faith, and I adhere to 
them as firmly as I approve them cordially." 

These things, taken together, show that the question 
of internal improvements is now more distinctly made — 
has become more intense, than at any former period. It 
can no longer be avoided. The veto message and the 
Baltimore resolution I understand to be, in substance, 
the same thing; the latter being the mere general state- 
ment, of which the former is the amplification — the bill 
of particulars. While I know there are many Demo- 
crats, on this floor and elsewhere, who disapprove that 
message, I understand that all who shall vote for Gener- 
al Cass will therefore be acounted as having approved it, 
as having endorsed all its doctrines; I suppose all, or 
nearly all, the Democrats will vote for him. Many of 
them will do so, not becuase they like his position on 
this question, but because they prefer him, being wrong 
in this, to another whom they consider further wrong on 
other questions. In this way the internal improvement 
Democrats are to be, by a sort of forced consent, carried 
over, and arrayed against themselves on this measure of 
policy. General Cass, once elected, will not trouble 
himself to make a constitutional argument, or, perhaps, 
any argument at all, when he shall veto a river or har- 
bor bill. He will consider it a sufficient answer to all 
Democratic murmurs, to point to Mr. Polk's message, 



46 Lincoln's speeches complete. 

and to the ** Democratic platform." This being the 
case, the question of improvements is verging to a final 
crisis; and the friends of the policy must now battle, and 
battle manfully, or surrender all. In this view, humble 
as I am, I wish to review, and contest, as well as I may, 
the general positions of this veto message. When I say 
general positions, I mean to exclude from consideration 
so much as relates to the present embarrassed state of the 
treasury, in consequence of the Mexican war. 

general positions. 

Those general positions are: That internal improve- 
ments ought not to be made by the General Gov- 
ernment: 

1. Because they would overwhelm the treasury. 

2. Because, while their burdens would be general, 
their benefits would be local and partial, involving an ob- 
noxious inequality; and 

3. Because they would be unconstitutional. 

4. Because the States may do enough by the levy 
and collection of tonnage duties; or, if not, 

5. That the Constitution may be amended. 

** Do nothing at all, lest you do something wrong," is 
the sum of these positions — is the sum of this message; 
and this, with the exception of what is said about con- 
stitutionality, applying as forcibly to making improve- 
ments by State authority, as by the national authority. 
So that we must abandon the improvements of the coun- 
try altogether, by any and every authority, or we must 
resist and repudiate the doctrines of this message. Let 
us attempt the latter. 



INTERNAL IMPROEVMENTS. 4/ 

The first position is, that a system of internal improve- 
ments would 

OVERWHELM THE TREASURY. 

That in such a system there is a tendency to undue 
expansion, is not to be denied. Such a tendency is 
founded in the nature of the subject. A member of 
Congress will prefer voting for a bill which contains an 
appropriation for his district, to voting for one that does 
not; and when a bill shall be expanded till every district 
shall be provided for, that it will be too greatly expan- 
ded is obvious. But is this any more true in Congress 
than in a State Legislature .? If a member of Congress 
must have an appropriation for his district, so a member 
of the Legislature must have one for his county; and if 
one will overwhelm the national treasury, so the other 
will overwhelm the State treasury. Go where we will, 
the difficulty is the same. Allow it to drive us from the 
halls of Congress, and it will just as easily drive us from 
the State Legislatures. Let us, then, grapple with it, 
and test its strength. 

Let us, judging of the future by the past, ascertain 
whether there may not be, in the discretion of Congress, 
a sufficient power to limit and restrain this expansive 
tendency within reasonable and proper bounds. The 
President himself values the evidence of the past. He 
tells us, that at a certain point of our history, more than 
two hundred millions of dollars had been applied for, to 
make improvements; and this he does to prove that the 
treasury would be overwhelmed by such a system. Why 
did he not tell us how much was granted ? Would not 



48 Lincoln's speeches complete. 

that have been better evidence ? Let us turn to it and 
see what it proves. In the message the President tells 
us that "during the four succeeding years, embraced by 
the administration of President Adams, the power not 
only to appropriate money, but to apply it, under the di- 
rection and authority of the General Government, as 
well as to the construction of roads as to the improve- 
ment of harbors and rivers, was fully asserted and ex- 
ercised." 

This, then, was the period of greatest enormity. 
These, if any, must have been the days of the two hun- 
dred millions. And how much do you suppose was 
really expended for improvements during that four years ? 
Two hundred millions ? One hundred ? Fifty ? Ten ? 
Five ? No, sir; less than two millions. As shown by 
authentic documents, the expenditures on improvements, 
during 1825, 1826, 1827, and 1828, amounted to $1,879,- 
627.01. These four years were the period of Mr. Adams, 
administration, nearly, and substantially. This fact 
shows that when the power to make improvements ' ' was 
fully asserted and exercised." the Congresses did keep 
within reasonable limits; and what has been done, it 
seems to me, can be done again. 

Now for the second position of the message, namely 
that the burdens of improvements would be general 
while their benefits would be local and partial, involving 
an obnoxious inequality. That there is some degree of 
truth in this position I shall not deny. No commercial 
object of government patronage can be so exclusively 
general, as not to be of some peculiar local advantage; 



INTERXAL IMPROVEMENTS. 49 

but, on the other hand, nothing is so local as not to be of 
some general advantage. The navy, as I understand it, 
was established, and is maintained, at a great expense, 
partly to be ready for war, when war shall come, but 
partly also, and perhaps chiefly, for the protection of 
our commerce on the high seas. This latter object is, 
for all I can see, in principle, the same as internal im- 
provements. The driving a pirate from the track of | 
commerce on the broad ocean, and the removing a snag j 
from its narrow path in the Mississippi river, can not, I I 
think, be distinguished in principle. Each is done to j 
save life and property, and for nothing else. 

The navy, then, is the most general in its benefits of 
all this class ^f objects; and yet even the navy is of some . 
peculiar advantage to Charleston, Baltimore, Philadela- 
phia. New York and Boston, beyond what it is to the in- 
terior town of Illinois. 

IMPROVEMENTS ON THE MISSISSIPPI RIVER. 

The next most general object I can think of, would be 
improvements on the Mississippi river and its tributaries. 
They touch thirteen of our States — Pennsylvania, Vir- 
ginia, Kentucky, Tennessee, Mississippi, Louisiana, 
Arkansas, Missouri, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Wisconsin,, 
and Iowa. Now, I suppose it will not be denied that 
these thirteen States are a little more interested in im- 
provements on that great river than are the remaining 
seventeen. These instances of the navy and the Missis- 
sippi river show clearly that there is something of local 
advantage in the most general objects*. But the converse 
is also true. 

Nothing is so local as not to be of some general bene- 



50 Lincoln's speeches complete. 

fit. Take, for instance, the Illinois and Michigan canal. 
Considered apart from its effects, it is perfectly- local. 
Every inch of it is in the State of Illinois. That canal 
was first opened for business last April. In a very few 
days we were all gratified to learn, among other things, 
that sugar had been carried from New Orleans, through 
the canal, to Buffalo, in Nev/ York. 

This sugar took this route, doubtless, because it was 
ch-eaper than the old route. Supposing the benefit in 
the reduction of the cost of carriage to be shared between 
the seller and buyer, the result is, that the New Orleans 
merchant sold his sugar a little dearer, and the people of 
Buffalo sweetened their coffee a little cheaper than be- 
fore; a benefit resulting from the canal, liot to Illinois 
where the canal is, but to Louisiana and New York, 
where it is not. In other transactions Illinois will, of 
course, have her share, and perhaps the larger share, 
too, in the l^enefits of the canal; but the instance of the 
sugar clearly shows, that the benefits of an improvement 
are b}^ no means confined to the particular locality of the 
improvement itself. 

The just conclusion from all tfeis is, that if the nation 
-rdfufa to make improvements of the more general kind, 
becaus^.^. their benefits may be somewhat local, a State 
'imay, for :the same reason, refuse to make .^n improve- 
vment of a -Weal kind, because its benefits may be some- 
^what general. A State may well say to the nation;: "If 
•you will do notliiw-g for me, I will do nothing for you. ''' 
Thus it 16- seen that il ^his argument of ' ' inequality '' is 
-sufficient :aiay where, it is s^ifBcieut everywhere, and puts 
an end to improvements altogettj.er. 



INTERNAL IMPROVEMENTS. 5 I 

I hope and believe that if both the nation and States 
would in good faith, in their respective spheres, do what 
they could in the way of improvements, what of inequal- 
ity might be produced in one place might be compensa- 
ted in another, and that the sum of the whole might not 
be very unequal. But suppose, after all, there should 
be some degree of inequality: inequality is certainly nev- 
er to be embraced for its own sake; but is every good 
thing to be discarded which may be inseparably, connec- 
ted with some degree of it ? If so, we must discard all 
government. 

This capitol is built at the public expense, for the 
public benefit; but does any one doubt that it is of some 
peculiar local advantage to the property holders and 
business people of Washington ? Shall we remove it for 
this reason ? And if so, where shall we set it down, and 
be free from the difficulty ? To make sure of our object 
shall we locate it nowhere ? And have Congress here-' 
after to hold its sessions, as the loafer lodged, *' in spots 
about } " I make no special allusion to the President 
when I say, there are few stronger cases in this world of 
" burden to the many, and benefit to the few, of inequal- 
ity, than the Presidency itself is by some thought to be. 

An honest laborer digs coal at about seventy cents a 
day, while' the President digs abstractions at about sev- 
enty dollars a day. The coal is clearly worth more than 
the abstractions, and yet what a monstrous inequality 
in the prices. Does the President, for this reason, pro- 
pose to abolish the Presidency .? He does not and he 
ought not. The true rule, in determining to embrace orT 
reject anything, is not whether it have any evil in it, but > 



52 Lincoln's speeches complete. 

whether it have more of evil than of good. There are a 
few things wholly evil or wholly good. Almost every- 
thing, especially of governmental policy, is an insepara- 
ble compound of the two; so that our" best judgment of 
preponderance between them is continually demanded. 
On this principle the President, his Mends, and the 
world generally, act on most subjects. Why not apply 
it, then, upon this question ? Why, as to improvements, 
magnify the evil and stoutly refuse to see any good in 
them ? 

Mr. Chairman, on the third positiori of the message, 
(the constitutional question,) I have much to say. Be- 
ing the man I am, and speaking when I do, I feel that 
in any attempt at an original, constitutional argument, I 
should not be, and ought not to be listened to patiently. 
The ablest and the best of men have gone over the 
whole ground long ago. I shall attempt little more than 
a brief notice of what some of them have said. In rela- 
tion to Mr. Jefferson's views, I read from Mr. Polfe. 
veto message: 

" President Jefferson, in his message to Congress in 1806, recotatnen- 
ded an amendment of the Constitution, with a view to apply an anticiipated 
surplus in the treasury, ' to the great purposes of the public edvjacation, 
roads, rivers, canals, and such other objects of public improvecaents as it 
may be thought proper to add to the constitutional enumeraljdn of the 
Federal powers.' And he adds: ' I suppose an amendment, tp the Con 
stitution, by consent of the States, necessary, because the objects now 
recommended, are not among those enumerated in the Constitution, and 
to which it permits the public moneys to be applied.' In 1825, he re- 
peated, iu his public letters, the opinion that no such power has been 
conferred upon Congress." 

I introduce this, not to controvert, just now, the con- 
stitutional opinion, but to show, that on the question of 



INTERNAL IMPROVEMENTS. 53 

expediency, Mr. Jefferson's opinion was against the 
present President — that this opinion of Mr. Jefferson, 
in one branch at least, is, in the hands of Mr. Polk, like 
McPingal's gun: 

"Bears wide and kicks the owner over." 

But, to the constitutional question. In 1826, Chan- 
cellor Kent first published his Commentaries on Ameri- 
can Law. He devoted a portion of one of the lectures 
to the question of the authority of Congress to appropri- 
ate public moneys for internal improvements. He men- 
tions that the question had never been under judicial 
consideration, and proceeds to give a brief summary of 
the discussions it had undergone between the legislative 
and executive branches of the government. He shows 
that, the legislative branch had usually been for, and the 
executive against, the power, till the period of Mr. J. 
Q. Adams' administration; at which point he considers 
the executive influence as withdrawn from opposition, 
and added to the support of the power. 

In 1844 the chancellor published a new edition of his 
Commentaries, in which he adds some notes of what had 
transpired on the question since 1826. I have not time 
to read the original text, or the notes, but the whole may 
be found on page 267, and the two or three following 
pages of the first volume of the edition of 1844. As 
what Chancellor Kent seems to consider the sum of the 
whole, I read from one of the notes: 

CHANCELLOR KENT. 

" Mr. Justice Story, in his Commentaries on the Constitution of the 
United States, vol. 2, page 429-440, and again, page 519-538, has stated at 
large the arguments for and against the proposition that Congress have 



54 Lincoln's speeches complete. 

a constitutional authority to lay taxes, and to apply the power to regulate 
commerce, as a means directly to encourage and protect domestic manu- 
factures; and, without giving any opinion of his own on the contested 
doctrine, he has left the reader to draw his own conclusions. I should 
think, however, from the arguments as stated, that every mind whiclf has 
taken no part in the discussions, and felt no prejudice or territorial 
bias on the question, would deem the arguments in favor of the Congres- 
sional power vastly superior." 

It will be seen, that in this extract, the power to make 
improvements is not directly mentioned; but by examin- 
ing the context, both of Kent and of Story, it will ap- 
pear that the power mentioned in the extract and the 
power to make improvements, are regarded as identical. 
It is not to be denied that many great and good men 
have been against the power; but it is insisted that quite 
as many, as great and as good, have been for it; and it is 
shown that, on a full survey of the whole, Chancellor 
Kent was of the opinion that the arguments of the latter 
were vastly superior. This is but the opinion of a man; 
but who was that man ? He was one of the ablest and 
most learned lawyers of his age, or of any age. It is no 
disparagement to Mr. Polk, nor indeed, to any one who 
devotes much time to politics, to be placed far behind 
Chancellor Kent as a lawyer. His attitude was most 
favorable to correct conclusions. He wrote coolly, and 
in retirement. He was struggling to rear a durable 
monument of fame; and he w«ell knew that truth and 
thoroughly sound reason were the only sure foundations. 
Can the party opinion of a party President, on a law 
question, as this purely is, be at all compared or set in 
opposition to that of such a man, in such an attitude, 
as Chancellor Kent ? 

The constitutional question will probabl}^ never be 



INTERNAL IMPROVEMENTS. 55 

better settled than it is, until it shall pass under ju- 
dicial consideration; but I do think no man who is 
clear on this question of expediency need feel his 
conscience much pricked upon this. 

TONNAGE DUTIES. 

Mr. Chairman, the President seems to think that 
enough may be done in the way of improvements by 
way of tonnage duties, under State authority, with 
the consent of the General Government. 

Now, I suppose this matter of tonnage duties is 
well enough in its. own sphere. I suppose it may be 
efficient, and perhaps sufficient, to make slight im- 
provements and repairs in harbors already in use, and 
not much out of repair. But if I have any correct 
general idea of it, it must be wholly insufficient for 
any generally beneficient purposes of improvement. I 
know very little, or rather nothing at all, of the prac- 
^cal matter of levying and collecting tonnage duties; but 
I suppose one of its principles must be, to lay a duty, 
for the improvement of an}^ particular harbor, upon the 
tonnage coming into that harbor. To do otherwise — 
to collect money in one harbor to be expended on im- 
provements in another — would be an extremely aggra- 
vated form of that inequality which the President so 
much deprecates. If it be right in this, how could we 
make entirely new improvements by means of tonnage 
duties ? How make a road, a canal, or clear a greatly 
obstructed river ? The idea that we could involves the 
same absurdity of the Irish bull about the new boots: 



56 LINCOLN'S SPEECHES COMPLETE. 

'*I SHALL NIVER GET 'eM ON," 

says Patrick, ' ' till I wear 'em a day or two and stretch 
'em a little. " We shall never make a canal by tonnage 
duties until it shall already have been made a while, so 
the tonnage can get into it. 

After all, the President concludes that possibly there 
may be some great objects of improvements which can- 
not be effected by tonnage duties, and which, therefore, 
may be expedient for the General Government to take in 
hand. Accordingly he suggests in case any such be dis- 
covered, the propriety of amending the Constitution. 
Amend it for what ? If, like Mr. Jefferson, the Presi- 
nent thought improvements expedient, but not constitu- 
tional, it would be natural enough for him to recommend 
such an amendment; but hear what he says in this very 
message: 

' ' In view of these portentous consequences, I cannot but think that 
this course of legislation should be arrested, even were there nothing to 
forbid it in the fundamental laws of our Union." 

For what, then, would he have the Constitution* 
amended ? With him it is a proposition to remove one 
impediment, merely to be met by others, which, in his 
opinion, can not be removed — to enable Congress to do 
what, in his opinion, they ought not to do if they 
could. 

[Here Mr. Meade, of Virginia, inquired if Mr. L. un- 
derstood the President to be opposed, on grounds of ex- 
pediency, to any and every improvement i'] 

To which Mr. Lincoln answered: In the very part of 
his message of which I am now speaking, I understand 
him as giving some vague expressions in favor of some 



INTERNAL IMPROVEMENTS. 5/ 

possible objects of improvements; but, in doing so, I un- 
derstand him to be directly in the teeth of his own argu- 
ments in other parts of it. Neither the President, nor 
any one, can possibly specify an improvement which 
shall not be clearly liable to one or another of the ob- 
jections he has urged on the score of expediency. I 
have shown, and might show again, that no work — no 
object — can be so general as to dispense its benefits 
with precise equality: and this inequality is chief among 
the ' ' portentous consequences " for which he declares 
that improvements should be arrested. No, sir; when 
the President intimates that something in the way of 
improvements may properly be done by the General 
Government, he is shrinking from the conclusions to 
which his own arguments would force him. He feels 
that the improvements of this broad and goodly land are 
a mighty interest; and he is unwilling to confess to the 
people, or perhaps to himself, that he has built an argu- 
ment, which, when pressed to its conclusion, entirely 
annihilates this interest. 

I have already said that no one who is satisfied of the 
expediency of making improvements, need be much un- 
easy in his conscience about its constitutionality. I wish 
now to submit a few remarks on the general proposition 
of amending the Constitution. 

THE GENERAL PROPOSITION. 

As a general rule, I think we would do much better to 
let it alone. No slight occasion should tempt us to 
touch it. Better not take the first step, which may lead 
to a habit of altering it. Better rather habituate our- 



58 Lincoln's speeches complete. 

selves to think of it as unalterable. It can scarcely 
be made better than it is. New provisions would in- 
troduce new difficulties, and thus create and increase 
appetite for still further changes. No, sir; let it stand 
as it is. New hands have never touched it. The 
men who made it have done their work, and have 
passed away. Who shall improve on what they did ? 

Mr. Chairman, for the purpose of reviewing this 
message in the least possible time, as well as for the 
sake of distinctness, I had analyized its arguments as 
well as I could, and reduced them to the propositions I 
have stated. I have now examined them in detail. I 
wish to detain the committee only a little while longer 
with some general remarks upon the subject of im- 
provements. 

improvements. 

That the subject is a difficult one, can not be denied. 
Still, it is no more difficult in Congress than in the State 
Legislatures, in the counties or in the smiallest municipal 
districts which an3^where exist. All can recur to in- 
stances of this difficulty in the case of county roads, 
bridges and the like. One man is offended because a 
road passes over his land; and another is offended be- 
cause it does not pass over his; one is dissatisfied be- 
cause the bridge, for which he is taxed, crosses the river 
on a different road from that which leads from his house 
to town; another one cannot bear that the county should 
get in debt for these same roads and bridges; while not 
a few struggle hard to have roads located over their 
lands, and then stoutly refuse to let them be opened, un- 



INTERNAL IMPROVEMENTS. 59 

til they are first paid the damages. Even between the 
different wards and streets of towns and cities we find 
this same wrangHng and difficulty. Now, these are no 
other than the very difiiculties against which, and out of 
w^hich, the President constructs his objections of "inequal- 
ity, -speculation," and -crushing the treasury." There 
is but a single alternative about them— they are sufii- 
cient, or they are not. If sufficient, they are sufficient 
out of Congress as well as in it, and there is the end. 
We must reject them as insufiicient, or lie down and do 
nothing by any authority. Then, difiiculty though there 
be, let us meet and overcome it. 

" Attempt the end, and never stand to doubt; 
Nothing so hard, but searcn will find it out." 

Determine that the thing can and shall be done, and 
then we shall find the way. The tendency to undue ex- 
pansion is unquestionably the chief difficulty. How to do 
something and still not do too much is the disideratum. 
Let each contribute his mite in the way of suggestion. 
The late Silas Wright, in a letter to the Chicago Con- 
vention, contributed his, which was worth something; 
and I now contribute mine, which may be worth noth- 
ing. At all events, it will mislead nobody, and therefore 
will do no harm. I would not borrow money. I am 
against an overwhelming, crushing system. Suppose 
at each session Congress shall determine how much 
money can, for that year, be spared for improvements; 
then apportion that sum to the most important objects. 
So far all is easy; but how shall we determine which are 
the most important .? On this question comes the col- 
ision of interests. I shall be slow to acknowledge that 



6o llncoln's speeches complete. 

your harbor or your river is more important than mine, 
and vice versa. To clear this difBculty, let us have that 
same statistical information which the gentleman from 
Ohio [Mr. Vinton] suggested at the beginning of this 
session. In that information we shall have a stern, un- 
bending bias of facts — a bias in nowise subject to whim, 
caprice, or local interest. The pre-hmited amount of 
means will save us from doing too much, and the statis- 
tics will save us from doing what we do, in wrong places. 
Adopt and adhere to this course, and, it seems to me, 
the difficulty is cleared. 

One of the gentlemen from South Carolina very much 
deprecates these statistics. He particularly objects, as I 
understand him, to counting all the pigs and chickens in 
the land. I do not perceive much force in the objection. 
It is true, that if everything enumerated, a portion of 
such statistics may not be very useful to this object. 
Such products of the country as are to be consumed, 
where they are produced, need no roads or rivers, no 
means of transportation, and have no very proper con- 
nection with this subject. 

The surplus, that whi^ch is produced in one place to be 
consumed in another; the capacity of each locality for 
producing a greater surplus; the natural means of trans- 
portion, and the susceptibility of improvement; the hin- 
drances, delays, and losses of life and proprty during 
transportation and the causes of each, would be among 
the most valuable statistics in this connection. From 
these it would readily appear where a given amount of 
expenditure would do the most good. These statistics 



INTERNAL IMPROVEMENTS. 6 1 

might be equally accessible as they would be equally 
useful, to both the Nation and the States. 

In this way, and by these means, let the Nation take 
hold of the larger works, and the States the smaller ones; 
and thus, working in meeting direction, discreetly, but 
steadily and firmly, what is made unequal in one place, 
may be equalized in another, extravagance avoided; and 
the whole country put on that career of prosperity 
which shall correspond with its extent of territory, its 
natural resources, and the intelligence and enterprise of 
its people. 



SPEECH ON THE PRESIDENCY AND GENERAL 
POLITICS. 

Delivered in the House, July 27, 1848.] 

Mr. Speaker: — Our Democratic friends seem to be in 
great distress because they think our candidate for the 
Presidency don't suit us. Most of them can not find out 
that General Taylor has any principles at all; some, 
however, have discovered that he has one, but that one 
is entirely wrong. This one principle is his position on 
the veto power. The gentleman from Tennessee (Mr. 
Stanton), who has just taken his seat, indeed, has said 
there is very little if any difference on this question be- 
tween Gen. Taylor and all the Presidents; and he seems 
to think it sufficient detraction from Gen. Taylor's po- 
sition on it, that it has nothing new in it. But all others, 
whomi have heard speak, assail it furiously. A new 
member from Kentucky (Mr. Clarke), of very considerable 
ability, was in particular concern about it. He thoughtit 
altogether novel and unprecedented for a President, or a 
Presidential candidate, to think of approving bills whose 
Constitutionality may not be entirely clear to his own 
mind. He thinks the ark of our safety is gone, unless Pres- 
ident shall always veto such bills as, in their judgment, 
may be of doubtful Constitutionality. However clear Con- 

(62) 



PRESIDENCY AND POLITICS. 63 

gress may be of their authority to pass any particular 
act, the gentleman from Kentucky thinks the President 
must veto if he has doubts about it. 

Now I have neither time nor inclination to argue with 
the gentleman on the veto power as an original question; 
but I wish to show that General Taylor, and not he, 
agrees with the earliest "statesmen on this question. 
When the bill chartering the first Bank of the United 
States passed Congress, its Constitutionality was ques- 
tioned; Mr. Madison, then in the House of Representa- 
tives, as well as others, opposed it on that ground. Gen. 
Washington, as President, was called on to approve or 
reject it. He sought and obtained, on the Constitution- 
al question, the separate written opinion of Jefferson, 
Hamilton and Edmund Randolph, they then being re- 
spectively Secretary of State, Secretary of the Treasury, 
and Attorney General. Hamilton's opinion v/as for the 
power; while Randolph's and Jefferson's were both 
against it. Mr. Jefferson, after giving his opinion de- 
cidedly against the Constitutionality of that bill, closed 
his letter with the paragraph I now read: 

' ' It must be admitted, however, that unless the Presi- 
ident's mind, on a view of everything which is urged for 
and against this bill, is tolerably clear that it is unau- 
thorized by the Constitution; if the pro and the con hang 
so even as to balance his judgment, a just respect for the 
wisdom of the Legislature would naturally decide the 
balance in favor of their opinion; it is chiefly for cases 
where they are clearly misled by error, ambition or in- 
terest, that the Constitution has placed a check in the 



64 Lincoln's speches complete. 

negative of the President. Thomas Jefferson.' 

February 15, i79i-" 

Gen. Taylor's opinion, as expressed in his Alhson let^ 
ter, is as I now read: 

' ' The power given by the veto is a high conservative' 
power; but, in my opinion, should never be exercised, 
except in cases of clear violation of the Constitutioiij of 
manifest haste and want of consideration by Congtess/^ 

It is here seen that, in Mr. Jefferson's opinion, if, oil 
the Constitutionality of any given bill, the President 
doubts, he is not to veto it, as the gentleman from Ken- 
tucky would have him to do, but is to defer to Congress 
and approve it. And if we comparie the opinions of 
Jefferson and Taylor, as expressed in these paragraphs, 
we shall find them more exactly alike than we can often 
find any two expressions having any literal difference. 
None but interested fault-finders can discover any sub- 
stantial variation. 

THE NATIONAL ISSUE. 

But gentlemen on the other side are unanimously 
agreed that Gen. Taylor has no other principle. They 
are in utter darkness as to his opinions on any of the 
questions of policy which occupy the public attention. 
But is there any doubt as to what he will do on the^ 
prominent questions, if elected ? Not the least. It is-. 
not possible to know what he will, or would do in t^x^ry 
imaginable case; because many questions havQ. passed; 
away, and others doubtless will arise which !^n^ of us , 
have yet thought of; but on the prominent ques-tions of.; 
currency, tariff, internal improvemer^i;s^ and \yilniQt^ 



PRESIDENCY AND POLITCS. 65 

proviso, Gen. Taylor's course is at least as well defined as 
is Gen. Cass'. Why, in their eagerness to get at Gen. 
Taylor, several Democratic members here have desired 
to know whether, in case of his election, a bankrupt law 
is to be established. Can they tell us Gen. Cass' opinion 
on this question.? (Some member answered: "He's 
against it.") Aye, how do you know he is.? There is 
nothing about it in the platform, or elsewhere, that I 
have seen. If the gentleman knows anything which I 
do not, he can show it. But to return: General Tay- 
lor, in his Allison letter, says: 

" Upon the subject of the tariff, the currency, the im- 
provement of our great highways, rivers, lakes, and har- 
bors, the will of the people, as expressed through their 
Representatives in Congress, ought to be respected and 
carried out by the Executive." 

A PRESIDENCY FOR THE PEOPLE. 

Now, this is the whole matter — in substance, it is 
this: The people say to Gen. Taylor: 

' ' If you are elected, shall we have a National Bank } " 

He answers: "Your will, gentlemen, not mine." 

"What about the tariff.?" 

" Say yourselves." 

' ' Shall our rivers and harbors be improved .? " 

' ' Just as you please. If you desire a bank, an altera- 
tion of the tariff, internal improvements, any or all, I 
will not hinder you; if you do not desire them, I will not 
attempt to force them on you. Send up your members 
of Congress from the various districts, with opinions ac- 
cording to your own, and if they are for these measures, 



66 Lincoln's speeches complete. 

or any of them, I shall have nothing to oppose; if they 
are not for them, I shall not, by any appliances whatev- 
er, attempt to dragoon them into their adoption." 

Now can there be any difficulty in understanding this ? 
To you, Democrats, it may not seem like principle; but 
surely you can not fail to perceive the position plainly 
enough. The distinction between it and the position of 
your candidate is broad and obvious, and I admit you 
have a clear right to show it is wrong, if you can; but 
you have no right to pretend you can not see it at all. 
We see it. and to us it appears like principle, and the 
best sort of principle at that — 'the principle of allowing 
the people to do as they please with their own business. 

My friend from Indiana (Mr. C. B. Smith) has aptly 
asked: "Are you willing to trust the people !" Some 
of you answered, substantially: *'We are willing to 
trust the people; but the President is as much the repre- 
sentative of the people as Congress." In a certain 
sense, and to. a certain extent, he is the representative of 
the people. He is elected by them, as well as Congress 
is. But can he, in the nature of things, know the wants 
of the people as well as three hundred other men coming 
from all the various localities of the nation ? If so, 
where is the propriety of having a Congress ? That the 
Constitution gives the President a negative on legislation 
all know; but that this negative should be so combined with 
platforms and other appliances as to enable him, and in 
fact, almost compel him, to take the whole of legislation in- 
to his own hands, is what we object to — is what Gen. 
Taylor objects to — and is what constitutes the broad 
distinction between you and us. ' To thus transfer legis- 



PRESIDENCY AND POLITCS. 6/ 

lation is clearly to take it from those who understand 
with minuteness the interest of the people, and give it to 
one who does not and cannot so well understand it. 

I understand your idea, that if a Presidential candi- 
date avow his opinion upon a given question, or rather 
upon all questions, and the people, with full knowledge 
of this, elect him, they thereby distinctly approve all 
those opinions. This, though plausible, is a most per- 
nicious deception. By means of it measures are adopted 
or rejected, contrary to the wishes of the whole of one 
party, and often nearly half of the other. The process 
is this: Three, four, or a half dozen questions are prom- 
inent at a given time; thi party selects its candidate, and 
he takes his position on each of these questions. On all 
but one of his positions have already been indorsed at 
former elections, and his party fully committed to them; 
but that one is new, and a large portion of them are 
against it. But what are they to do ? The whole are 
strung together, and they must take all or reject all. 
They can not take what they like and leave the rest. 
What they are already committed to, being the majority, 
they shut their eyes and gulp the whole. Next election 
still another is introduced in the same way. 

If we run our eyes along the line of the past, we shall 
see that almost, if not quite, all the articles of the pres- 
ent Democratic creed have been at first forced upon the 
party in this very way. And just now, and just so, op- 
position to internal improvements is to be estab- 
lished if Gen. Cass shall be elected. Almost half the 
Democrats here are for improvements, but they will vote 
for Cass, and if he succeds, their votes will have aided in 



68 Lincoln's speeches complete. 

closing the doors against improvements. Now, this is a 
process which we think is wrong. We prefer a candidate 
who, hke Gen. Taylor, will allow the people to have 
their own way regardless of his private opinion; and I 
should think the internal-improvement Democrats at 
least, ought to prefer such a candidate. He would force 
nothing on them which they don't want, and he would al- 
low them to have improvements, which their oWn can- 
didate, if elected, will not. 

GEN. TAYLOR AND THE WILMOT PROVISO. 

Mr. Speaker, I have said that Gen, Taylor s position 
is as well defined as is that of Gen. Cass. In saying this, 
I admit I do not certainly know w^hat he would do on 
the Wilmot proviso. I am a Northern man, or, rather, 
a Western free State man, with a constituency I believe 
to be, and w^ith personal feelings I know to be, against 
the extension of slavery. As such, and with what infor- 
mation I have, I hope, and believe, Gen. Taylor, if elec- 
ted, would not veto the proviso; but I do not know it. 

Yet, if I knew he would I still would vote for him. I 
should do so, because, in my judgment, his election 
alone can defeat Gen. Cass; and because, should slavery 
thereby go into the territory we now have, just so much 
will certainly happen by the election of Cass; and in ad- 
dition, a course of policy leading to new wars, new ac- 
quisitions of territory, and still further extension of 
slavery. One of the two is to be ' President; which is 
preferable ? 

But there is as much doubt about of Cass on improve- 
ments as there is of Taylor on the proviso. I have no 



PRESIDFNCY AND POLITICS. 69 

doubt of Gen. Cass on this question, btit I know the 
Democrats differ among them.selves as to his position. 
My internal improvement colleague (Mr. Wentworth) 
stated on this floor the othcir day, that he was satisfied 
Cass was for improvemen ts, because he had voted for 
all the bills that he (Mr. W.) had. So far so good. 
But Mr. Polk vetoed some of these very bills; the Balti- 
more Convention passed a set of resolutions, among oth- 
er things, approving these vetoes, and Cass declares in 
his letter accepting the nomination, that he has carefully 
read these resolutions, a:nd that he adheres to them as 
firmly as he approves them cordially. In other words, 
Gen. Cass voted for the bills, and thinks the President 
did right to veto them; and his friends here are amiable 
enough to consider him as being on one side or the oth- 
er, just as one or the otheir many correspond with their 
own respective inclinations. 

My colleague admits t'hat the platform declares 
against the Constitutionality of a general system of 
improvements, and that G sn. Cass indorses the plat- 
form; but he still thinks Gen. Cass is in favor of some 
sort of improvements. Well, what are they.? As he 
is against general objects, those he is for, must be 
particular and local. Now, this is taking the subject 
precisely by the wrong end. Particularity — expending 
the money of the whole p.eople for an object which 
will, benefit only a portion of them, is the greatest 
objection to improvements, and has been so held by 
Gen. Jackson, Mr. Polk, and all others, I believe, till 
now. But now behold, the objects most general, near- 
est free from this objection, are to be rejected, while 



70 LINCOLN S SPEECHES COMPLETE. 

those most liable to it are to be embraced. To return: 
I cannot help believing that Gen. Cass, when he wrote 
his letter of acceptance, well understood he was to be 
claimed by the advocates of both sides of this question, 
and that he then closed the doors against all further ex- 
pressions of opinion, purposely to retain the benefits of 
that double position. His subsequent equivocation at 
Cleveland, to my mind, proves such to have been the 
case. 

PLATFORMS. 

One word more, and I shall have done with this 
branch of the subject. You Democrats, and your candi- 
date, in the main are in favor of laying down, in ad- 
vance, a platform — a set of party positions, as a unit; 
and then of enforcing the people, b^ every sort of appli- 
ance, to ratify them, however unAlatable some of them 
may be. We, and our candidate, are in favor of making 
Presidential elections and the legislation of the country 
distinct matters; so that the people can elect whom they 
please, and afterward legislate just as they please, with- 
out any hindrance, save only so much as may guard 
against infractions of the Constitution, undue haste, and 
want of consideration. 

The difference between us is clear as noon-day. That 
we are right we cannot doubt. We hold the true Re- 
publican position. In leavingjthe people's business in 
their hands, we cannot be wrong. We are willing, and 
even anxious, to go to the people on this issue. 

MR. clay's defeat AND DEMOCRATIC SYMPATHIES. 

But I suppose I can not reasonably hope to convince 



PRESIDENCY AND POLITICS. 7 1. 

3^ou that we have any principles. The most I can ex- 
pect is, to assure you that we think we have, and are 
quite contented with them. The other day, one of the 
gentlemen from Georgia (Mr. Iverson), an eloquent man, 
and a man of learning, so far as I can judge, not being 
learned myself, came down upon us astonishingly. He 
spoke in what the Baltimore American calls the * ' scath- 
ing and withering style. " At the end of his second se- 
vere flash I was struck blind, and found myself feeling 
with my fingers for an assurance of my continued physical 
existence. A little of the bone was left, and I gradually 
revived; He eulogized Mr. Clay in high and beautiful 
terms, and then declared that we had deserted all our 
principles, and had turned Henry Clay out, like an old 
horse, to root. This is terribly severe. It cannot be 
answered by argument; at least I cannot so answer it. 

■ I merely wish to ask the gentleman if the Whigs are 
the only party he can think of who sometimes turn old 
horses out to root ! Is not a certain Martin Van Buren 
an old horse, which your party turned out to root ? and 
is he not rooting to your discomfort about now ? But in 
not nominating Mr. Clay, we deserted our principles, 
you say. Ah! in what ? Tell us, ye men of principles, 
what principle we violated ? We say you did violate 
principle in discarding Van Buren, and we can tell you 
how. Yoo violated the primary, the cardinal, the one 
great living principle of all Democratic representative 
government — the principle that the representative is 
bound to carry out the known will of his constituents. 

A large majority of the Baltimore Convention of 1844 
were, by their constituents, instructed to procure Van 



72 Lincoln's speeches complete. 

Buren's nomination if they could. In violation, in utter, 
glaring contempt of this, you rejected him — rejected 
him, as the gentleman from New York (Mr. Birdsall), 
the other day, expressly admitted, for availability — 
that same ' ' general availability " which you charge on 
us, and daily chew over here, as something exceedingly 
odious and unprincipled. But the gentleman from 
Georgia (Mr. Iverson), gave us a second speech yester- 
terday, all well considered and put down in writing, in 
which Van Buren was scathed and withered a " few " for 
his present position and movements. I can not remem- 
ber the gentleman's precise language, but I do remember 
he put Van Buren down, down, till he got him where 
he was finally to "sink" and "rot." 

Lincoln's description of himself as a military hero. 

By the way, Mr. Speaker, did you know I am a mili- 
tary hero ? Yes, sir, in the days of the Black Hawk war 
I fought, bled, and came away. Speaking of Gen. Cass's 
career, reminds me of my own. I was not at Stillman's 
defeat, but I was about as near it as Cass to Hull's sur- 
render; and like him, I saw the place very soon after- 
ward. It is quite certain I did not break my sword, for 
I had none to break; but I bent a musket pretty badly 
on one occasion. If Cass broke his sword, the idea is, 
he broke it in desperation; I bent the musket by acci- 
dent. If Gen. Cass went in advance of me in picking 
whortleberries, I guess I surpassed him in charges upon 
the wild onions. If he saw any live, fighting Indians, it 
was more than I did, but I had a good many bloody 
struggles with the mosquitos; and although I never 



PRESIDENCY AND POLITICS. 73 

fainted from loss of blood, I can truly say I was often 
very hunggry. 

Mr. Speaker, if I should ever conclude to doff whatev- 
er our Democratic friends may suppose there is of black- 
cockade Federalism about me, and, thereupon, they 
should take me up as their candidate for the Presidency, 
I protest they shall not make fun of me as they have of 
Gen. Cass, by attempting to write me into a military hero. 

CASS ON THE WILMOT PROVISO. 

While I have Gen. Cass in hand, I wish to say a word 
about his political principles. As a specimen, I take the 
record of his progress on the Wilmot Proviso. In the 
the Washington Union, of March 2, 1847, there is a re- 
port of the speech of Gen. Cass, made the day before in 
the Senate, on the Wilmot Proviso, during the delivery 
of which Mr. Miller, of New Jersey, is reported to have 
interrupted him as follows, to- wit: 

' ' Mr. Miller expressed his great surprise at the change 
in the sentiments of the Senator from Michigan, who had 
been regarded as the great champion of freedom in the 
North-west of which he was a distinguished ornament. 
Last year the Senator from Michigan was understood to 
be decidedly in favor of the Wilmot Proviso; and, as no 
reason had been stated for the change, he (Mr. Miller) 
could not refrain from the expression of his extreme sur- 
prise." 

To this Gen. Cass is reported to have replied as fol- 
lows, t.o-wit: 

Mr. Cass said, that the course of the Senator from 
New Jersey was most extraordinary. Last year he (Mr. 



74 LINCOLN'S SPEECHES COMPLETE. 

Cass) should have voted for the proposition had it come 
up. But circumstances had altogether changed. The 
honorable Senator then read several passages from the 
remarks given above, which he had committed to writing 
in order to refute such a charge as that of the Senator 
from New Jersey. 

In the ''remarks above committed to writing," is one 
numbered 4, as follows, to-wit: 

' ' 4th. Legislation would now be wholly imperative, 
because no territory hereafter to be acquired can be gov- 
erned without an act of Congress providing for its gov- 
ernment. And such an act, on its passage, would open 
the whole subject, and leave the Congress, called on to 
pass it, free to exercise its own discretion, entirely un- 
controlled by any declaration found in the statute book.' 

In Niles' Register, vol. 73, page 293, there is a letter 
of Gen. Cass to A. O. P. Nicholson, of Nashville, Tennes- 
see, dated December 24, 1847, from which the following 
are correct extracts: 

* ' The Wilmot Proviso has been before the country 
some time. It has been repeatedly discussed in Con- 
gress, and by the public press. I am strongly impressed 
with the opinion that a great change has been going on 
in the public mind upon this subject — in my own as 
well as others; and that doubts are resolving themselves 
into convictions, that the principle it involves should be 
kept out of the National Legislature, and left to the peo- 
ple of the Confederacy in their respective local gov- 
ernments. 

' ' Briefly, then, I am opposed to the exercise of any 
jurisdiction by Congress over this matter; and I am in 



PRESIDENCY AND POLITICS. 75 

favor of leaving the people of any territory which maybe 
hereafter acquired, the right to regulate it themselves, 
under the general principles of the Constitution. Be- 



cause, 



- I do not see in the Constitution any grant of the re- 
ouisite power to Congress; and I am not disposed to ex- 
4nd a doubtful precedent beyond its necessity — the es- 
tabhshment of territorial governments when needed — 
leaving to the inhabitants all the rights compatible with 
the relations they bear to the Confederation. ' 

AN OBEDIENT DEMOCRAT. 

These extracts show that, in 1846, Gen. Cass was for 
the Proviso at once; that, in March, 1847, he was 
still for it but not just then; and, that in December, 1847, 
against it altogether. This is a true index to the whole 
man. When the question was raised in 1846, he was 
in a blustering hurry to take ground for it. He sought 
to be in advance, and to avoid the uninteresting position 
of a mere follower; but soon he began to see a ghmpse of 
the great Democratic ox-gad waving in his face, and to 
hear indistinctly a voice saying, -back, back, sir; back a 
little " He shakes his head and bats his eyes, and 
blunders back to his position of March, 1847; and still 
the gad waves, and the voice grows more distinct, and 
sharper still --back, sir! back, I say! further back! 
nnd back he goes to the position of December, 1847; at 
which the gad is still, and the voice soothingly says, -So! 

stand still at that." 

Have no fears, gentlemen, of your candidate; he ex- 
actly suits you, and we congratulate you upon it. How- 
ever much you may be distressed about our candidate 



"j^ Lincoln's speeches complete. 

you have all cause to be contented and happy with your 
own. If elected he may not maintain all, or even any of 
his positions previously taken; but he will be sure to do 
whatever the party exigency, for the time being, may re- 
quire: and that is precisely what you want. He and 
Van Buren are the same ** manner of men;" and like 
Van Buren, he will never desert you till you first desert 
him. 

WONDERFUL PHYSICAL CAPACITIES OF GEN. CASS. 

But I have introduced Gen. Cass' accounts here, chief- 
ly to show the wonderful physical capacities of the man. 
They show that he not only did the labor of several men 
at the same time, but that he often did it at several 
places many hundred miles apart, at the same time. 
And at eating, too, his capacities are shown to be quite 
as wonderful. From October, 1821, to May, 1822, he 
ate ten rations a day in Michigan, ten rations a day here 
in Washington, and near five dollars' worth a day besides, 
partly on the road between the two places. And then 
there is an important discovery in his example — the art 
of being paid for what one eats, instead of having to pay 
for it. Hereafter, if any nice man shall owe a bill 
which he can not pay in any other way, he can just 
board it out. Mr. Speaker, we have all heard of the 
animal standing in doubt between two stacks of hay, 
and starving to death; the like of that would never hap- 
pen to Gen. Cass. Place the stacks a thousand miles 
apart, he would stand stock-still, midway between them, 
and eat both at once; and the green grass along the line 
would be apt to suffer some, too, at the same time. By 



PRESIDENCY AND POLITICS. 'J'J 

all means, make him President, gentlemen. He will feed 
you bounteously — if — if there is any left after he shall 
have helped himself. 

But as Gen. Taylor, is, par excellence, the hero of the 
Mexican war; and, as you Democrats say we Whigs have 
always opposed the war, you think it must be very awk- 
ward and embarrassing for us to go for Gen. Taylor. 
The declaration that we have always opposed the war, is 
true or false accordingly as one may understand the 
term '' opposing the war." If to say *' the war was un- 
necessarily and unconstitutionally commenced by the 
President, " be opposing the war, then the Whigs have 
very generally opposed it. Whenever they have spoken 
at all, they have said this; and they have said it on what 
has appeared good reason to them: The marching of an 
army into the midst of* a peaceful Mexican settlement, 
frightening the inhabitants away, leaving their growing 
crops and other property to destruction, to you may ap- 
pear a perfectly amiable, peaceful, unprovoking proced- 
ure; but it does not appear so to us. So to call such an 
act, to us appears no other than a naked, impudent ab_ 
surdity, and we speak of it accordingly. But if, when 
the war had begun, and become the cause of the country, 
the giving of our money and our blood, in common with 
yours, was support of the war, then it is not true that 
we h ave always opposed the war. With few individual 
exceptions, you have constantly had our votes here for 
all the necessary supplies. ^ 

CLAY AND WEESTFR EACH LOST A SON IN THE MEXICAN,' 

WAR. 

And, more than this, you have had the services, the 



7S Lincoln's speeches complete. 

blood, and the lives of our political brethren in every trial 
and on every field, The beardless boy and the mature 
man — the humble and the distinguished, you have had 
them. Through suffering and death, by disease, and 
in battle they have endured, and fought, and fallen with 
you. Clay and Webster each gave a son, never to be re- 
turned. 

From the State of my own residence, besides other 
worthy but less known Whig names, we sent Marshall, 
Morrison, Baker, and Hardin; they all fought, and one 
fell, and in the fall of that one, we lost our best Whig 
man. Nor were the Whigs few in number, or laggard in 
the day of danger. In that fearful, bloody, breathless 
struggle at Buena Vista, where each man's hard task 
was to beat back five foes, or die himself, of the five 
high officers who perished, four were Whigs. 

In speaking of this, I mean no odious comparison be- 
tween the lion-hearted Whigs and Democrats who fought 
there. On other occasions, and among the lower officers 
and privates on that occasion, I doubt not the propor- 
tion was different. I wish to do justice to all. I think 
of all those brave men as Americans, in whose proud 
fame, as an American, I, too, have a share. Many of 
them, Whigs and Democrats, are my constituents and 
personal friends; and I thank them — more than thank 
them — one and all, for the high, imperishable honor 
they have conferred on our common State. 

AN IMPORTANT DISTINCTION. 

But the distinction between the cause of the President 
in beginning the war, and the cause of the country after 



PRESIDENCY AND POLITICS. 79 

it was begun, is a distinction which you can not per- 
ceive. To you, the President and the country seem to be 
all one. You are interested to see no distinction be- 
tween them; and I venture to suggest that possibly your 
interest blinds you a little. We see the distinction, as 
we think, clearly enough; and our friends, who have 
fought in the war, have no difficulty in seeing it also. 
What those who have fallen would say, were they alive 
and here, of course we can never know; but with those 
who have returned there is no difficulty. Col. Haskell 
and Major Gaines, members here, both fought in the 
war; and one of them underwent extraordinary perils 
and hardships; still they, like all other Whigs here, vote 
on the record that the w^ar was unnecessarily and uncon- 
stitationally commenced by the President. And even 
Gen. Taylor, himself, the noblest Roman of them all, 
has declared that, as a citizen, and particularly as a sol- 
dier, it is sufficient for him to know that his country is 
at war with a foreign nation, to do all in his power to 
bring it to a speedy and honorable terminati p, by the 
most vigorous and energetic operations, without inquir- 
ing about its justice, or anything else connected with it. 
Mr. Speaker, let our Democratic friends be comforted 
with the assurance that we are content with our position, 
content with our company, and content with our candi- 
date; and that although they, in their generous sympa- 
thy, think we ought to be miserable, we really are not, 
and that they may dismiss the great anxiety they have 
on our account. 



THE MISSOURI COMPROMISE. 

Delivered at Peora, 111., October, i6, 1854, in a reply to Judge Douglas. 
On Monday, October, 16, Senator Douglas, by appointment, addressed a 
large audience at Peoria. When he closed, he was greeted with six- 
hearty cheers, and the band in attendance played a stirring air. The 
crowd then began to call for Lincoln, who, as Judge Douglas had an- 
nounced, was, by agreement, to answer him. Mr. Lincoln then took the 
stand, and said: 

Fellow-Citizens: — I do not rise to speak now, if I 
can stipulate with the audience to meet me here at half- 
past six or at seven o'clock. It is now several minutes 
past five, and Judge Douglas has spoken over three 
hours. If you hear me at all, I wish you to hear me 
through. It will take me as long as it has taken him. 
That will carry us beyond eight o'clock at night. Now 
every one of you who can remain that long, can 
just as well get his supper, meet me at seven, and re- 
main one hour or two later. The judge has already in- 
formed you that he is to have an hour to reply to me. 
I doubt not but you have been a little surprised to learn 
that I have consented to give one of his high reputation 
and known ability this advantage of me. Indeed, my 
consenting to it, though reluctant, was not wholly un- 
selfish, for I suspected, if it were understood, that the 
judge was entirely done, you Democrats would leave and 
not hear me; but by giving him the close, I felt confident 

(80) 



THE MISSOtJRr COMPROMISE. 8 1 

you would stay for the fun of hearing him skin me. 

The audience signified their assent to the arrangement, 
and adjourned to seven o'clock, p. m. , at which time 
they re-assembled, and Mr. Lincoln spoke as follows: 

The repeal of the Missouri Compromise, and the pro- 
priety of its restoration, constitute the subject of what 
I am about to say. 

As I desire to present my own connected view of this 
subject, my remarks will not be specifically an answer to 
Judge Douglas; yet as I proceed, the main points he has 
presented will arise, and will receive such respectful at- 
tention as I may be able to give them. 

I wish further to say that I do not propose to question 
the patriotism, or assail the motives of any man or class 
of men, but rather to confine myself strictly to the 
naked merits of the question. 

I also wish to be no less than national in all the posi- 
tions I may take, and whenever I take ground which 
others have thought, or may think, narrow, sectional, 
and dangerous to the Union, I hope to give a reason 
which will appear sufficient, at least to some, why I 
think differently. 

And as this subject is no other than part and parcel of 
the larger general question of domestic slavery, I wish 
to MAKE and to keep the distinction between the exist- 
ing institution and the extension of it, so broad and so 
clear, that no honest man can misunderstand me, and 
no dishonest one successfully misrepresent me. 

In order to a clear understanding of what the Mis- 
souri Compromise is, a short history of the preceeding 
kindred subjects will be proper. 



82 ' Lincoln's speeches complete. 

important history ''ordinance of '^'j.'' 

When we established our independence, we did not 
own or claim the country to which this compromise ap- 
plies. Indeed, strictly speaking, the Confederacy then 
owned no country at all; the States respectfully owned 
the country within their limits, and some of them owned 
territory beyond their strict State limits. Virginia thus 
owned the Northwestern Territory — the country out of 
which the principal part of Ohio, all Indiana, all Illi- 
inois, all Michigan, and all Wisconsin, have since been 
formed. She also owned (perhaps within her then lim- 
its what has since been formed into the State of 
Kentucky. North Carolina thus owned what is now the 
State of Tennessee; and South Carolina and Georgia 
owned, in separate parts, what are now Missisippi and 
Alabama. Connecticut, I think, owned the little re-, 
maining part of Ohio — being the same where they now 
send Giddings to Congress, and beat all creation at mak- 
ing cheese. 

These territories, together with the States themselves 
constituted all the country over which the Confederacy 
then claimed any sort of jurisdiction. We were then 
living under the Articles of Confederation, which were 
superceded by the Constitution several years afterward. 
The question of ceding these territories to the General 
Government was set on foot. Mr. Jefferson — the au- 
thor of the Declaration of Independence, and otherwise 
a chief actor in the Revolution; then a delegate in Con- 
gress; afterward, twice President; who was, is, and per- 
haps will continue to be, the most distinguished politi- 
cian of our history; a Virginian by birth and continued 



THE MISSOURI COMPROMISE. 83 

residence, and withal, a slaveholder — conceived the 
idea of taking that occasion to prevent slavery ever go- 
ing into the Northwestern Territory. He prevailed on 
the Virginia Legislature to adopt his viev^s, and to cede 
the territory, making the prohibition of slavery therein a 
condition of the deed. Congress accepted the cession 
with the condition; and in the first ordinance (which the 
acts of Congress were then called) for the government of 
of the territory, provided that slavery should never be 
permitted therein. This is the famed '' Ordinance of 
'Sy,'' so often spoken of. 

THE GREAT NORTHWEST. 

Thenceforward for sixty-one years, and until, 1848 
the last scrap of this territory came into the Union as 
the State of Wisconsin, all parties acted in quiet obedi- 
ence to this ordinance. It is now what Jefferson foresaw 
and intended — the happy home of teeming millions of 
free, white, prosperous people, and no slave among 
them. 

Thus, with the author of the Declaration of Inde- 
pendence, the policy of prohibiting slavery in new terri- 
tory originated. Thus, away back of the Constitution, 
in the pure, fresh, free breath of the Revolution, the 
State of Virginia and the National Congress put that pol- 
icy in practice. Thus, through more than sixty of the 
best years of the Republic, did that policy steadity work 
to its great and beneficent end. And thus, in those five 
States, and five millions of free, enterprising people, we 
have before us the rich fruits of this policy. 

But now, new light breaks upon us. Now Congress 
declares this ought never to have been, and the Hke of it 



f>4 Lincoln's speeches complete. 

must never be a^ain. The sacred right of self-p;(wern- 
ment is j^rossly violated by it. We even find some men, 
who drew their first breath, and every other breath of 
their lives, under this very restriction, now live in dread 
of absolute suffocation, if they should be restricted in the 
•'sacred ri{;ht " of takiuf:^ slaves to Nebraska. 

That perfect liberty they sigh for — the liberty of mak- 
ing slaves of other people — Jefferson never thought of; 
their own fathers never thought of; they never thought 
of themselves, a year ago. How fortunate for them they 
did not sooner become sensible of their great misery! O, 
how difficult it is to treat with respect such assaults up- 
on all we have ever really held sacred. 

MOKE valuable IIISTOKY. 

But to return to history. In 1803 we purchased what 
was then called Louisiana, of France. It included the 
l)resent States of Louisiana, Arkansas, Missouri, and 
Iowa; also the territcuy of Minnesota, and the present 
bone of contention, Kansas and Nebraska. Slavery al- 
ready existed among the French at New Orleans; and to 
some extent, at St. Louis. In 1812, Louisiana came 
into \\\c Union as a shi\-e State, without controversy. In 
t8iS or [9, Missouri showed signs of a wish to come in 
with slavery. This was resisted by Northern members 
of Congress; and thus began the first great slavery agita- 
tson in the nalicui. The controversy lasted several 
months, and became very angry and exciting; the House 
of Representatives voting steadily for the prohibition of 
slavery in Missouri, and the Senate voting as steadily 
against it. Threats of breaking up the Union were free- 



THE MISSOURI COMPROMISE. 85 

ly made; and the ablest public men of the day became 
seriously alarmed. 

At length a compromise was made, in which, as in all 
compromises, both sides yielded something. It was a 
law passed on the 6th day of March, 1820, providing 
that Missouri might come into the Union with slavery, 
but that in all the remaining part of the territory pur- 
chased of France, which lies north of thirty-six degrees 
and thirty minutes north latitude, slavery should never 
be permitted. This provision of law is the Missouri 
Compromise. In excluding slavery north of the line, 
the same language is employed as in the ordinance of 
^7. It directly applied to Iowa, Minnesota and the 
present bone of contention, Kansas and Nebraska. 
Whether there should or should not be slavery south of 
that line, nothing was said in the law. But Arkansas 
constituted the principal remaining part, south of the 
line; and it has since been admitted as a slave State, 
By still another rapid move, Texas, claiming a boundary 
much further west than when we parted with her in 18 19, 
was brought back to the United States, and admitted in- 
to the Union as a slave State. Then there was little or 
no settlement in the northern part of Texas, a considera- 
ble portion of which lay north of the Missouri line; and 
in the resolutions admitting her into the Union, the Mis- 
souri restriction was expressly extended westward across 
her territory. This was in 1845, only nine years ago. 

Thus originated the Missouri Compromise; and thus 
has it been respected down to 1845. And even four 
years later, in 1849, our distinguished senator, in a pub- 
lic address, held the following language in relation to it: 



86 Lincoln's speeches complete. 

VIEWS OF Lincoln's opponent. 

" The Missouri Compromise had been in practical operation for about 
a quarter of a century, and had received the sanction and the approba- 
tion of men of all parties in every section of the Union. It had allayed 
all sectional jealousies and irritations,- growing out of this vexed question, 
and harmonized and tranquilized the whole country. It had given to 
Henry Clay, as its prominent champion, the proud sobriquet of the 
'Great Pacificator,' and by that title, and for that service, his politicpl 
friends had repeatedly appealed to the people to rally under his standai^d, 
as a Presidential candidate, as the man who had exhibited the patriotism 
and the power to surpress an unholy and treasonable agitation, and pre- 
serve the Union. He was not aware that any man, or any party from 
any section of the Union, had ever urged as an objection to Mr. Clay 
that he was the great champion of the Missouri Compromise. On the 
contrary, the effort was made by the opponents of Mr. Clay, to prove 
that he was not entitled to the exclusive merit of that great patriotic 
measure; and that the honor was equally due to others, as well as to him, 
for securing its adoption — that it had its origin in the hearts of all patri- 
otic men, who desired to preserve and perpetute the blessings of our glor- 
ious Union — an origin akin to that of the Constitution of the United 
States, conceived in the same spirit of fraternal affection, and calculated 
to -remove forever the only danger, which seemed to threaten, at some 
distant day, to sever the social bond of Union. All the evidences of pub- 
lic opinion at that day seemed to indicate that this Compromise had been 
canonized in the hearts of the American people, as a sacred thing, which 
no ruthless hand would ever be reckless enough to destroy." 

I do not read this extract to involve Judge Douglas in 
an inconsistency. If he afterward thought he had been 
wrong, it was right for him to change — I bring this for- 
ward merely to show the high estimate placed on the Mis- 
souri Compromise by all parties up to so late as the year 
1849- 

new MEXICO, UTAH AND CALIFORNIA. 

In the spring of 1848, a treaty of peace was made 
with Mexico, by which we obtained that portion of her 
country which now constitutes the territories of New 



THE MISSOURI COMPROMISE. 8/ 

Mexico and Utah, and the present State of CaHfornia. 
By this treaty the '^Wilmot Proviso " was defeated, in 
so far as it was intended to be a condition of the acqui- 
sition of territory. Its friends, however, were still deter- 
mined to find some way to restrain slavery from getting 
into the new country. This new acquisition lay direct- 
ly west of our old purchase from France, and extended 
west to the Pacific Ocean — and was so situated that if 
the Missouri line should be extended straight west, the 
new country would be divided by such extended line, 
leaving some north and some south of it. On Judge 
Douglas' motion, a bill, or provision of a bill, passed the 
Senate to extend the Missouri line. The Proviso men in 
the House, including myself, voted it down, because, by 
implication, it gave up the southern part to slavery, 
while we were bent on having it all free. 

But going back a little, in a point of time. Our war 
with Mexico broke out in 1 846. When Congress was 
about adjourning that session, President Polk asked 
them to place two millions of dollars under his control, 
to be used by him in the recess, if found practicable and 
expedient, in negotiating a treaty of peace with Mexico, 
and acquiring some part of her territory. A bill was 
duly gotten up for the purpose of, and was progressing 
swimmingly in the House of Representatives, when a mem- 
ber by the name of David Wilmot, a Democrat from 
Pennsylvania, moved as an amendment, ''Provided, 
that in any territory thus acquired, there shall never be 

slavery. " . ,, 

This is the origin of the far-famed ''Wilmot Pioviso. 

It created a great flutter; but it stuck Hke wax, was voted 



88 LINCOLN'S SPEECHES COMPLETE. 

into the bill, and the bill passed with it through the 
House. The Senate, however, adjourned without final 
action on it, and so both appropriation and proviso were 
lost for the time. The war continued, and at the next 
session the President renewed his request for the appro- 
priation, enlarging the amount, 1 think, to three mil- 
lions. Again came the Proviso, and defeated the meas- 
ure. Congress adjourned again, and the war went on. 
In December, 1847, the new Congress assembled. I was 
in the lower House that term. The '' Wilmot Proviso," 
or the principle of it, was constantly coming up in some 
shape or other, and I think I may venture to say I voted 
for it at least forty times, during the short time I was 
there. The Senate, however, held it in check, and it never 
became a law. 

HOW CALIFORNIA V^AS KEPT OUT OF THE UNION. 

In the fall of 1848, the gold mines were discovered in 
California. This attracted people to it with unprecedented 
rapidity, so that on, or soon after the meeting of the new 
Congress in December, 1849, she already had a population 
of nearly a hundred thousand, had called a convention, 
formed a State Constitution, excluding slavery, and was 
knocking for admission into the Union. The Proviso 
men, of course, were for letting her in, but the Senate, 
always true to the other side, would not consent to her 
admission. And there California stood, kept out of the 
Union, because she would net let slavery into her bor- 
ders. Under all the circumstances, perhaps this was not 
wrong. There were other points of dispute connected 
with the general question of slavery, which equally need- 



THE MISSOURI COMPROMISE. 89 

ed adjustment. The South clamored for a more efficient 
fugitive slave law. The North clamored for the aboli- 
tion of a peculiar species of slave-trade in the District of 
Columbia, in connection with which, in view from the 
windows of the Capitol, a sort of negro livery-stable, 
where droves of negroes were collected, temporarily 
kept, and finally taken to Southern markets, precisely 
like droves of horses, had been openly maintained for 
fifty years. 

Utah and New Mexico needed territorial governments; 
and whether slavery should or should not be prohibited 
within them was another question. The indefinite west- 
ern boundary of Texas was to be settled. She was a 
slave State, and consequently the farther west the slav- 
ery men could push her boundary, the more slave 
ground was secured; and the farther east the slavery op- 
ponents could thrust the boundary back, the less slave 
ground was secured. Thus this was just as clearly a 
slavery question as any of the others. ^ 

THE COMPROMISE OF 1850. 

Thesr points all needed adjustment; and they were all 
held up, perhaps wisely, to make them help to adjust 
one another. The Union now, as in 1820, was thought 
to be in danger; and devotion to the Union rightfully in- 
clined men to yield somewhat, in points, where nothing 
else could have so inclined them. A compromise was 
finally affected. The South got their new fugitive slave 
lawi and the north got California (by far the best part of 
our acquisition from Mexico) as a free State. The South 
got a provision that New Mexico and Utah, when admit- 
ted as States, may come in with or without slavery as 



90 LINCOLN'S SPEECHES COMPLETE. 

they may then choose; and the North got the slave-trade 
abohshed in the District of Columbia. The North got 
the western boundary of Texas thrown farther back east- 
ward than the South desired; but, in turn, they gave 
Texas ten millions of dollars, with which to pay her old 
debts. This is the Compromise of 1850. 

Preceeding the Presidential election of 1852, each of 
the great political parties, Democrats and Whigs, met 
in convention, and adopted resolutions indorsing the 
Compromise of '50, as a "finality," a final settlement, 
so far as these parties could make it so, of all slavery ag- 
itation. Previous to this, in 185 1, the Illinois Legisla- 
ture had indorsed it. 

KANSAS AND THE REPEAL OF THE MISSOURI COMPROMISE. 

During this long period of time, Nebraska had re- 
mained substantially an uninhabited country, but now 
emigration to, and settlement within it began to take 
place. It is about one-third as large as the present 
United States, and its importance so long overlooked, 
begins to come into view. The restriction of slavery' 
by the Missouri Compromise directly applies to it; in 
fact, was first made, and has since been maintained ex- 
pressly for it. In 1853, a bill to give it a territorial 
government was passed by the House of Representatives, 
and, in the hands of Judge Douglas, failed or passing 
only for want of time. This bill contained no repeal of 
the Missouri Compromise. Indeed, when it was assailed 
because it did contain such repeal, Judge Douglas defend- 
ed it in its existing form. On January 4, 1854, Judge 
Douglas introduces a new bill to give Nebraska a terri- 



THE MISSOURI COMPROMISE. 9 1 

torial government. He accompanies this bill with a re- 
port, in which last, he expressly recommends that the 
Missouri Compromise shall neither be affirmed nor 
repeated. 

Before long the bill is so modified as to make two ter- 
ritories instead of one, calling the southern one 
Kansas. 

Also, about a month after the introduction of the bill, 
on the judge's own motion, it is so amended as to de- 
clare the MissouriCompromise in operative and void; and, 
substantiall}^ that the people who go and settle there 
may establish slavery, or exclude it, as they may see 
fit. In this shape, the bill passed both branches of 
Congress and became a law. 

This is the repeal of the Missouri Compromise. The 
history may not be precisely accurate in every particu- 
lar; but I am sure it is sufficiently so, for all the use I 
shall attempt to make of it; and in it we have the chief 
material enabling us to judge correctly whether the re- 
peal of the Missouri Compromise is right or wrong. 

I think, and shall try to show, that it is wrong; wrong 
in its direct effect, letting slavery into Kansas and Ne- 
braska, and wrong in its prospective principle, allowing 
it to spread to every other part of the wide world, where 
men can be found inclined to take it. 

WHY LINCOLN HATED SLAVERY. 

This declared indifference, but as I must think, cov- 
ert real zeal for the spread of slavery, I cannot but hate. 
I hate it for the monstrous injustice of slavery itself. I 
hate it because it deprives our republican example of its 
just influence in the world; enables the enemies of ivee 



92 Lincoln's speeches complete. 

institutions, with plausibility to taunt us at hypocrites; 
causes the real friends of freedom to doubt our sincerity; 
and especially because it forces so many really good men 
among ourselves into an open war with the very funda- 
mental principles of civil liberty, criticising the Declara- 
tion of Independence, and insisting that there is no right 
principle of action but self interest. 

Before proceeding, let me say I think I have no prej- 
udice against Southern people. They are just what we 
would be in their situation. If slavery did not now ex- 
ist among them, they would not introduce it If it did 
now exist among us, we should not instantly give it up. 
This I believe of the masses North and South. Doubt- 
less there are individuals, on both sides, who v^ould not 
hold slaves under any circumstances, and others who 
would gladly introduce slavery anew, if it were 
out of existence. We know that some Southern men do 
free their slaves, go north, and become tip-top abolition- 
ists; while some Northern ones go south, and become 
most cruel slave-masters. 

When Southern people tell us they are no more re- 
sponsible for the origin of slavary than we are, I ac- 
knowledge the fact. When it is said that the institution 
exists, and that it is very difficult to get rid of it in any 
satisfactory way, I can understand and appreciate the 
saying. I surely will not blame them for not doing what 
I should not know how to do myself. 
Lincoln's views. 

If all earthly power were given me, I should not know 
what to do, as to the existing institution. My first im- 
pulse would be to free all the slaves, and send them to 



THE MISSOURI COMPROMISE. 93 

Liberia — to their own native land. But a moment's 
reflection would convince me, that whatever of high 
hope (as I think there is) there may be in this in the 
long run, its sudden execution is impossible. If they 
all landed there in a day, they would all perish in the 
next ten days, and there are not surplus shipping and 
surplus money enough to carry them there in many 
times ten days. What then ^ Free them all, and keep 
them among us as underlings ? Is it quite certain that 
this betters their condition ? 

I think I would not hold one in slavery, at any rate; 
yet the point is not clear enough for me to denounce 
people upon. - What n'ext } Free them, and make them 
politically and socially our equals.^ My own feelings will 
not admit of this; and if mine would, we well know that 
those of the great mass of white people will not. Wheth- 
er this feeling accords wdth justice and sound judgment, 
is not the sole question' if indeed, it is any part of it. A 
universal feeling, whether well or ill-founded, can not be; 
safely disregarded. We can not, then, make them, 
equals. It does seem to me that systems of gradual 
emancipation might be adopted; but for their tardiness 
in this, I will not undertake to judge our bxQthren of the. 
South. 

When they remind us of their constitutional rights^ 
I acknowledge them, not grudgingly, but fully and fair- 
ly; and I would give them any legislation for the re- 
claiming of their fugitives, which should not in its strin- 
gency be more likely to carry a free man into slavery, 
than our ordinary criminal laws are to hang^ an innocent 
Qne. 

But all this, to my judgment,, f'tjrnishes no more ex- 



94 LINCOLN'S SPEECHES COMPLETE. 

cuse for permitting slavery to go into our own free terri- 
tory, than it would for reviving the African slave-trade 
by law. The law which forbids the bringing of slaves 
from Africa, and that which has so long forbidden the 
taking of them into Nebraska; can hardly be distinguished 
on any moral principle; and the repeal of the former 
could find quite as plausible excuses as that of the later. 

THE ARGUMENTS. 

The arguments by which the repeal of the Missouri 
Compromise is sought to be justified, are these: 

First. That the Nebraska country needed a territori- 
al government. 

Second. That in various ways, the public had repu- 
diated that Compromise, and demanded the repeal, and 
therefore, should not now complain of it. 

And, lastly. That the repeal establishes a principle 
and this in the hands of the same men who are now the 
champions of repeal. Why no necessity then for the 
repeal ? But still later, when this very bill was first 
brought in, it contained no repeal. But, say that, be- 
cause the people had demanded, or rather commanded 
the repeal, the repeal was to accompany the organiza- 
tion, whenever that should occur. 

'' I DENY IT." 

Now, I deny that the public ever demanded any such 
thing — ever repudiated the Missouri Compromise — 
ever commanded its repeal. I deny it, and call for the 
proof. It is not contended, I believe, that any such 



THE MISSOURI COMPROMISE. 95 

command has ever been given in express terms. It is 
only said that it was done in principle. The support of 
the Wilmot Proviso is the first fact mentioned, to prove 
that the Missouri restriction was repudiated in principle, 
and the second is, the refusal to extend the Missouri 
line over the country acquired from Mexico. These are 
near enough alike to be treated together. The one was 
to exclude the chances of slavery from the whole new 
acquisition by the lump, and the other was to reject a 
division of it, by which one-half was to be given up to 
those chances. Now, whether this was a repudiation of 
the Missouri Compromise line, in principle, depends up- 
on whether the Missouri law contained any principle 
requiring the line to be extended over the country ac- 
quired from Mexico. I contend it did not. I insist it 
contained no general principle, but that it was, in every 
sense, specific. That its terms limit it to the country 
purchased from France, is undenied and undeniable. It 
could have no principle beyond the intention of those 
who made it. They did not intend to extend the line to 
country which they did not own. If they intend to ex- 
tend it, in the event of acquiring additional territory, 
why did they not say so ? It was just as easy to say 
which is intrinsically right. 

I will attempt an answer to each of them in its turn. 

First then. 'If that country was in need of a territorial 
> organization, could it not have had it as well without as 
with -the repeal ? Iowa and Minnesota, to both of which 
the Missouri restriction applied, had without its repeal, 
each in succession, territorial organizations. And even 
;the year before, a bill for Nebraska itself, was 



g6 Lincoln's speeches complete. 

within an ace of passing, without the repeaHng clause; 
that ' ' in all the country west of the Mississippi which 
we now own or may hereafter acquire, there shall never 
be slavery," as to say what they did say; and they would 
have said it, if they had meant it. An intention to ex- 
tend the law is not only not mentioned in the law, but is 
not mentioned in any contemporaneous history. Both 
the law itself and the history of the times are a blank as 
to any principle of extension; and by neither the known 
rules for construing statutes and contracts, nor by com- 
mon sense, can any such principle be inferred. 

Another fact showing the specific character of the 
Missouri law — showing that it intended no more than it, 
expressed; showing that the line was not intended as a 
universal dividing line between free and slave territory, 
present and prospective, north of which slavery could 
never go — is the fact that, by that very law, Missouri 
came in as a slave State, ngrth of the line. If that law 
contained any prospective principle, the whole law must 
be looked to in order to ascertain what the principle 
was. And by this rule, the South could fairly contend 
that inasmuch as they got one slave State north of the 
line at the inception of the law, they have a right to 
have another given them north of it occasionally, now 
and then, in the indefinite westward extension of the 
line. This demonstrates the absurdity of attempting to 
deduce a prospective principle from the Missouri Com- 
promise line. 

WHAT LINCOLN VOTED FOR. 

When we voted for the Wilmot Proviso, we were vot- 
ing to keep slavery out of the whole Mexican acquisi- 



THE MISSOURI COMPROMISE. 97 

tion; and little did we think that we were thereby voting 
to let it into Nebraska, lying several hundred miles dis- 
tant. When we voted against extending the Missouri 
line, little did we think that we were voting to destroy 
the old line, then of near thirty years standing. 

To argue that we thus repudiated the Missouri Com- 
promise is no less absurd than it would be to argue that 
because we have so far forborne to acquire Cuba, we 
have thereby, in principle, repudiated our former acqui- 
sitions, and determined to throw them out of the Union. 
No less absurd than it would be to say that, becaase I 
have refused to build an addition to my house, I thereby 
have decided to destroy the existing house! And if I 
catch you setting fire to my house, you will turn upon 
me and say I instructed you to do it! 

The most conclusive argument, however, that while 
voting for the Wilmot Proviso, and while voting against 
the EXTENSION of the Missouri line, we never thought of 
disturbing the original Missouri Compromise, is found in 
the fact that there was then, and still is, an unorganized 
tract of fine country, nearly as large as the State of Mis- 
souri, lying immediately west of Arkansas, and south of 
the Missouri Compromise line: and that we never at- 
tempted to prohibit slavery as to it. I wish particular 
attention to this. It adjoins the original Missouri Com- 
promise line by its northern boundary; and consequently 
is part of the country into which, by implication, slavery 
was permitted to go by that Compromise. There it has 
lain open ever since, and there it still lies; and yet no 
effort has been made at any time to wrest it from the 
South. In all our struggles to prohibit slavery within 



9$ Lincoln's speeches complete. 

our Mexican acquisitions, we never so much as lifted a 
finger to prohibit it as to this tract. Is not this entirely 
conclusive that, at all times, we have held the Missouri 
Compromise as a sacred thing, even when against our- 
selves as well as when for us .? 

Senator Douglas sometimes says the Missouri line it- 
self, was, in principle, only an extension of the line of 
the ordinance of '^y — that is to say, an extension of the 
Ohio river. I think this is weak enough on its face. I 
will remark, however, that, as a glance at the map will 
show, the Missouri line is a long way farther south than 
the Ohio, and that if our Senator, in proposing his ex- 
tension, had stuck to the principle of jogging southward, 
perhaps it might not have been voted down so readily. 

**THIS AGAIN I DENY." 

But next it is said that the Compromise of '50, and 
the the ratification of them by both political parties in 
'52, established a new principle, which required the re- 
peal of the Missouri Compromise. This, again, I deny. 
I deny it, and demand the proof. I have already stated 
fully what the Compromises of '50 are. The particular 
part of those measures from which the viritual repeal of 
the Missouji Compromise is sought to be inferred, (for it 
is admitted they contain nothing about it, in express 
terms,) is the Provision in the Utah and New Mexico 
laws, which permits them, when they seek admission, 
into the Union as States to come in with or without 
slavery; as they shall then see fit. 

Now I insist this provision was made for Utah and New 
Mexico, and for no other place whatever. It had no 
more direct reference to Nebraska than it had to the 



THE MISSOURI COMPROMISE. 99 

territories of the moon. But, say they, it had reference 
to Nebraska, in principle. Let us see. The North con- 
sented to this provision, not because they considered it 
right in itself, but because they were compensated — 
paid for it. 

They, at the same time, got California into the 
Union as a free State. This was far the best part of all 
they had. struggled for by the Wilmot Proviso. They 
also got the area of slavery somewhat narrowed down in 
thej settlement of the boundary of Texas. Also, they 
got the slave-trade abolished in the Districa of Columbia. 

For all these desirable objects, the North could afford 
to yield something; and they did yield to the South the 
Utah and New Mexico provision. I do not mean that 
the whole North, or even a majority, yielded, when 
the law passed but enough yielded when added to 
the vote of the South, to carry the measure. Now 
can it be pretended that the principle of this arrange- 
ment requires us to permit the same provision to be ap- 
plied to Nebraska, withomt any equivalent at all ? Give 
us another free State; press the boundary of Texas still 
further back; give us another step toward .the destruc- 
tion of slavery in the Di.strict, and you present us a sim- 
ilar case. But ask us n(Dt to repeat, for nothing, what 
you paid for in the first instance. If you wish the thing 
again, pay again. Thai; is the principle of the Compro- 
mise of '50, if indeed they had any principles beyond 
their specific terms — it was the system of equivalents. 

CONGRESS SAID **N0." 

Again, if Congress , at that time, intended that all fu- 



100 LINCOLN S SPEECHES COMPLETE. 

ture territories should, when admitted as States, come 
with or without slavery, at their own option, why did it 
not say so ? With such an universal provision, all know 
the bills could not have passed. Did they, then — could 
they — establish a principle contrary to their own inten- 
tion ? Still further; if they intended to establish the prin- 
ciple that wherever Congress had control, it should be 
left to the people to do as they thought fit with slavery, 
why did they not authorize the people of the District of 
Columbia, at their option, to a.bolish slavery within their 
limits ? 

I personally know this has not been left undone be- 
cause it was unthought of. It was frequently spoken of 
by members of Congress, and by citize-ns of Washington, 
six years ago; and I heard no one express a doubt that 
a S3^stem of gradual emancipatioB, with compensation to 
owners, would meet the approbation of a large majority 
of the white people of the Distinct. But without the 
action of Congress they could say nothing; and Congress 
said "No." In the measures of. 1850, Congress had 
the subject of slavery in the District expressl}^ on hand. 
If they were then establishing the principle of allowing 
the people to do as they please with slavery, why did 
they not apply the principle to th: it people ? 

Again, it is claimed that by tl le Resolutions of the 
Illinois Legislature, passed in 1 851, the repeal of the 
Missouri Compromise was demanded. This I deny also. 
Whatever may be worked out by a criticism of the lan- 
guage of those resolutions, the people have never un- 
derstood them as being any more tha n an indorsement 
of the Compromise of 1850; and a rci^ease of our Sena- 



THE MISSOURI COMPR(DMISE. lOI 

tors from voting for the Wilmot Proviso. The whole 
people are living witnesses, that this, only was their view. 
Finally, it is asked, ''If we did not mean to apply the 
Utah and New Mexico provision to all future territories, 
what did we mean when we, in 185^2, indorsed the Com- 
promises of 1840.^" 

WHAT THE COMPROMISES OF 1850 MEANT. 

For myself, I can answer this question most easily. 
I m.eant not to ask a repeal or modification of the fugi- 
tive slave law. I meant not to ask for the abolition of 
slavery in the District of Columbia. I meant not to re- 
sist the admission of Utah and New Mexico, even should 
they ask to come in as slave states. I meant nothing 
about additional territories, because, as I understood, we 
then had no territory whose character as to slavery was 
not already settled. As to Nebraska, I regarded its 
character as being fixed, by the Missouri Compromise, 
for thirty years — as unalterably fixed as that of my own 
home in Illinois. As. to new acquisitions, I said, "suffi- 
cient unto the day is the evil thereof." When we make 
new acquisitions, we will, as heretofore, try to manage 
them somehow. That is my answer; that is what I 
meant and said; and I appeal to the people to say each 
for himself, whether that was not also the universal mean- 
ing of the free states. 

And now, in turn, let me ask a few questions. If by 
any or all these matters, the repeal of the Missouri Com- 
promise was commanded, why was not the command 
sooner obeyed.? Why was the repeal omitted in the 
Nebraska bill of 1853.? Why was it omitted in the 
original bill of 1854.? Why, in the accompanying report, 



102 LINCOLN S SPEECHES COMPLETE. 

was such a repeal characterized as a departure from the 
course pursued in 1850? And its continued omission 
recommended? 

I am aware Judge Douglas now argues that the sub- 
sequent express repeal is no substantial alteration of the 
bill. This argument seems wonderful to me. It is as if 
one should argue that white and black are not different. 
He admits, however, that there is a literal change in the 
bill, and that he made the change in deference to other 
Senators, who would not support the bill without. This 
proves that those other Senators thought the change a 
substantial one, and that the Judge thought their opinions 
worth deferring to. His own opinions, therefore, seem 
not to rest on a very firm basis, even in his own mind; 
and I suppose the world believes, and will continue to be- 
lieve, that precisely on the substance of that change this 
whole agitation has arisen. 

I conclude, then, that the pubHc never demanded the 
repeal of the Missouri Compromise. 

INTRINSICALLY NOT RIGHT. 

I now come to consider whether the repeal, with its 
avowed principles, is intrinsically right. I insist that it 
is not. Take the particular case. A controversy had 
arisen between the advocates and oponents of slavery, 
in relation to its establishment within the country we 
had purchased of France. The southern, and then best 
part of the purchase, was already in as a slave state. 
The controversy was settled by also letting Missouri in 
as a slave state; but with the agreement that within all 
the remaining part of the purchase, north of a certain 
line, there should never be slavery. As to what was to 



THE MISSOURI COMPROMISE. I ©3 

be done with the remaining part south of the line noth- 
ing was said; but perhaps the fair inpHcation was, that 
it should come in with slavery, if it should so choose. 
The southern part, except a portion heretofore men- 
tioned, afterward did come in with slavery, as the State 
of Arkansas. 

All these many years, since 1820, the northern part 
had remained a wilderness. At length, settlements be- 
gan in it also. In due course, Iowa came in as a free 
state, and Minnesota was given a territorial government, 
without removing the slavery restriction. Finally, the 
sole remaining part, north of the line — Kansas and 
Nebraska — was to be organized; and it is proposed, and 
carried, to blot out the old dividnig line of thirty-four 
years' standing, and to open the whole of that country to 
the introduction of slavery. Now this, to my mind, is 
manifestly unjust. After an angry and dangerous con- 
troversy, the parties made friends by dividing the bone of 
contention. The one party first appropriates her own 
share, beyond all power to be disturbed in the possession 
of it, and then seizes the share of the other party. It is 
as if two starving men had divided their only loaf; the 
one had hastily swallowed his half, and then grabbed the 
other's half just as he was putting it into his mouth. 

A LULLABY. 

Let me here drop the main argument, to notice what 
I consider rather an inferior matter. It is argued that 
slavery will not go to Kansas and Nebraska, in any event. 
This is a palliation — a lullaby. I have some hope that 
it will not; but let us not be too confident; As to cli- 
mate, a glance at the map shows that there are five slave 



I04 LINCOLN'S SPEECHES COMPLETE. 

states — Deleware, Maryland, Virginia, Kentucky, and 
Missouri, and also the District of Columbia, all north of 
the Missouri Compromise line. The census returns of 
1850, show that, within these, there are eight hundred 
and sixty-seven thousand two hundred and seventy-six 
slaves — being more than one-fourth of all the slaves in 
the nation. 

It is not climate, then, that will keep slavery out of 
these territories. Is there anything in the peculiar na- 
ture of the country? Missouri adjoins these territories 
by her entire western boundary, and slavery is already 
within every one of her western counties. I have even 
heard it said that there, are more slaves in proportion to 
whites in the northwestern county of Missouri, than with- 
in any other county in the state. Slavery pressed en- 
tirely up to the old western boundary of the state, and 
when, rather recently, a part of that boundary at the 
northwest was moved out a little farther west, slavery 
followed on quite up to the new line. Now when the re- 
striction is removed, what is to prevent it from going 
still farther.!* Climate will not — no peculiarty of the 
country will — nothing in nature will. Will the disposi- 
tion of the people prevent it.? Those nearest the scene 
are all in favor of the extension. The Yankees, who are 
opposed to it, may be most numerous; but, in military 
phrase, the battle-field is too far from their base of oper- 
otions; 

' 'THE STAKE PLAYED FOR. " 

But it is said, there now is no law in Nebraska on the 
subject of slavery, and that, in such case, taking a slave 
there operates his freedom. That is good book law, but 



THE MISSOURI COMPROMISE. 105 

is not the rule of actual practice. Wherever slavery is 
it has been first introduced w^ithout law. The oldest 
laws we find concerning it, are not law^s introducing it, 
but regulating it as an already existing thing. A v/hite 
man takes his slave to Nebraska now. Who will inform 
the negro that he is free.? Who will take him before; 
court to test the question of his freedom.? In ignorance 
of his legal emancipation, he is kept chopping, splitting, 
and plowing. Others are brought and move on in the 
same track. At last, if ever the time for voting comes on 
the question of slavery, the institution already, in fact, 
exists in the country, and can not well be removed. The 
fact of its presence, and the difficulty of its removal, v/ill 
carry the vote in its favor. Keep it out until a vote is 
taken, and a vote in favor of it can not be got in any 
population of forty thousand on earth, who have been 
drawn together by the ordinary motives of emigration 
and settlement. To get slaves into the territory simul- 
taneously with the whites, in the incipient stages of set- 
tlement, is the precise stake played for, and won, in this 
Nebraska measure. 

A NAKED FACT. 

The question is asked us: **If slaves will go in, not- 
withstanding the general principle of law liberates them, 
why would they not equally go in against positive stat- 
ute law — go in, even if the Missouri restrictions were 
maintained!" I answer, because it: takes a much bolder 
man to venture in with his property in the latter case 
than in the former; because the positive Congressional 
enactment is known to, and respected by all, or nearly 
all; whereas the negative principle that no law is free law, 



106 LINCOLN'S SPEECHES COMPLETE. 

is not much known except among lawyers. We have 
some experience of this practical difference. In spite of 
the ordinance of '87, a few negroes were brought into Illi- 
nois, aud held in a state of quasi slavery, not enough, 
however, to carry a vote of the people in favor of the 
institution, when they came to form a Constitution. But, 
in the adjoining Missouri country, where there was no 
ordinance of 'Sy — was no restriction — they were carried 
ten times, nay, a hundred times, as fast, and actually 
made a slave state. This is fact — naked fact. 

ANOTHER LULLABY. 

Another lullaby argument is, that taking slaves to 
new countries does not increase their number — does not 
make any one slave who otherwise would be free. There 
is some truth in this, and I am glad of it; but it is not 
wholly true. The African slave-trade is not yet effectu- 
ally suppressed; and if we make a reasonable deduction 
for the white people among us who are foreigners, and 
the descendants of foreigners, arriving here since 1808, 
we shall find the increase of the black population out- 
running that of the white, to an extent unaccountable, 
except by supposing that some of them, too, have been 
coming from Africa. If this be so, the opening of new 
countries to the institution increases the demand for, 
and augments the price of slaves, and so does in fact 
make slaves of freemen, by causing them to be brought 
from Africa and sold into bondage. 

But however this may be, we know the opening of 
new countries to slavery tends to the perpetuation of 
the institution, and so does keep men in slavery who 
would otherwise be free. This result we do not feel like 



THE MISSOURI COMPROMISE. lO/ 

favoring, and we are under no legal obligation to suppress 
our feelings in this respect. 

Equal justice to the South, it is said, requires us to 
consent to the extension of slavery to new countries. 
That is to say, inasmuch as you do not object to my tak- 
ing my hog to Nebraska, therefore I must not object to 
you taking your slave. Now, I admit that this is per- 
fectly logical, if there is no difference between hogs and 
negroes. But while you thus require me to deny the 
hamanity of the negro, I wish to ask whether you of the 
South, yourselves, have ever been willing to do as much? 
It is kindiy provided, that of all those who come into 
the world, only a small percentage are natural tyrants. 
That percentage is no larger in the slave states than in 
the free. 

HUMAN SYMPATHY. 

The great majority South, as well as North, have 
human sympathies, of which they can no more divest 
themselves, than they can of their sensibility to physical 
pain. These sympathies in th e bosoms of the Southern 
people manifest, in many ways, their sense of the wrong 
of slavery, and their consciousness that, after all, there 
is humanity in the negro. If they deny this, let me ad- 
dress them a few plain questions. In 1820, you joined 
the North, almost unanimoulsy, in declaring the African 
slave-trade piracy, and in annexing to it the punishment 
of death. Why did you do this.? If you did not feel that 
it was wrong, why did you join in providing that men 
should be hung for it.? The practice was no more than 
bringing wild negroes from Africa to sell to such as would 
buy them. But you never thought of hanging men for 



I08 LINCOLN'S SPEECHES COMPLETE. 

catching and selling wild horses, wild buffaloes, or wild 
bears. 

''WHY IS THIS?" 

Again: you have among you a sneaking individual of 
the class of native t3Tants, known as the ' 'slave-dealer. " 
He watches your necessities, and crawls up to buy your 
slave, at a speculating price. If you can not help it, you 
sell to him; but if you can help it you drive him from 
your door. You despise him utterly. You do not re- 
cogonize him as a friend or even as an honest man. 
Your children must not play with his; they may rollick 
freely with little negroes, but not with the "slave- 
dealer's" children. If you are obliged to deal with him, 
you try to get through the job, without so much as 
touching him. 

It is common with you to join hands with the men you 
meet; but with the slave-dealers you avoid the ceremony 
— instinctively shrinking from the snaky contact. If he 
grows rich and retires from business, you still remember 
him," and still keep up the ban of non-intercourse upon 
him and his family. Now, why is this? You do not 
so treat the man who deals in corn, cattle or tobacco. 



'WHAT IS THAT SOMETHING 



And yet again: There are in the United States and 
territories, including the District of Columbia, 433,643 
free blacks. At $500 per head, they are worth over two 
hundred millions of dollars! How comes this vast 
amount of property to be running about, without owners? 
We do not see free horses, or free cattle, running at large. 
How is this? All these free blacks are the descendants 



THE MISSOURI COMPROMISE. 109 

o{ slaves, OT have been slaves themselves; and they 
would be slaves now, but for something which has oper- 
ated on their white owners, inducing them at vast 
pecuniary sacrifices to liberate them. What is that 
something .? Is there any mistaking it > In all these 
cases, it is your sense of justice and human sympathy, 
continually telling you that the poor negro has some 
natural right to himself — that those who deny it, and 
make mere merchandise of him, deserve kickings, con- 
tempt, and death. 

And now, why will you ask us to deny the humanity 
of the slave, and estimate him as only the equal of the 
hog ? Why ask us to do what you will not do yourselves.? 
Why ask us to do for nothing what two hundred millions 
of dollars could not induce you to do.? 

THE SACRED RIGHT OF SELF GOVERNMENT. 

But one great argument in the support of the repeal 
of the Missouri Compromise is still to come. That argu- 
ment is ' 'the sacred right of self-government. ' It seems 
our distinguished Senator has found great difficulty in 
getting his antagonists, even in the Senate, to meet him 
fairly on this argument. Some poet has said: 

"Fools rush in where angels fear to tread." 

At the hazard of being thought one of the fools of this 
quotation I meet the argument — I rush in — I take that 
bull by the horns. 

I trust I understand and truly estimate the right of 
self-government. My faith in the proposition that each 
man should do precisely as he pleases with all which is 
exclusively his own, lies at the foundation of the sense 
of justice there is in me. I extend the principle to 



110 LlNCOLN^S SPEECHES COMPLETE. 

communities of men, as well as to individuals. I so ex:- 
tend it, because it is politically wise, as well as naturally 
just; politically wise in saving us from broils about 
matters which do not concern us. Here, or at Wash- 
ington, I would not trouble myself with the oyster laws 
of Virginia, or the cranberry laws of Indiana. 

The doctrine of self-government is right — absolutely 
and eternally right — but it .has no just application as 
here attempted. Or perhaps I should rather say that 
whether it has such just application, depends upon 
whether a negro is nt)t or is a man. If he is not a man, 
in that case he who is a man, may as a matter of self- 
government, do just what he pleases with him. But if 
the negro is a man, is it not to that extent a total de- 
struction of self-government to say that he too shall not 
govern himself ? When the white man governs himself, 
that is self-government; but when he governs himself , and 
also another man, that is more than self-government — 
that is despotism. If the negro is a man, why, then, my 
ancient faith teaches me that ''all men are created 
equal;" and that there can be no moral right in con- 
nection with one man's making a slave of another. 

Judge Douglas frequently, with bitter irony and sar- 
casm, paraphrases our argument by saying: "The white 
people of Nebraska are good enough to govern them- 
selves, but they are not good enough to govern a few 
miserable negroes!" 

THE SHEET-ANCHOR OF AMERICAN REPUBLICANISM. 

Well, I doubt not that the people of Nebraska are, and 
will continue to be as good as the average of people else- 
where . I do not say the contrary. What I do say is 



THE MISSOURI COMPROMISE. 1 I I 

that no man is good enought to govern another man, 
without that other's consent. I say this is the leading 
principle, the sheet-anchor of American Republicanism. 
Our Declaration of Independence says: 

"We hold these truths to be self-evident: That all men are created 
equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable 
rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. 
That to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, de- 
riving their just powers from the consent of the governed." 

I have quoted so much at this time merely to show 
that according to our ancient faith, the just powers of 
governments are derived from the consent of the gov- 
erned. Now, the relation of master and slave is pro 
tanto a total violation of their principle. The master 
not only governs the slave without his consent, but he 
governs him by a set of rules altogether different from 
those which he prescribes for himself. Allow all the gov- 
erned an equal voice in the government; and that, and 
that only, is self-government. 

Let it not be said I am contending for the establish- 
ment of political and social equality between the whites 
and blacks. I have already said the contrary. I am 
not now combating the argument of necessity, arising 
from the fact that the blacks are already among us; but 
I am combating what is set up as moral argument for 
allowing them to be taken where they have never yet 
been — arguing against the extension of a bad thing, 
which, where it already exists, we must of necessity 
manage as we best can. 

In support of his application of the doctrine of self- 
government, Senator Douglas has sought to bring to his 
aid opinions the and examples of our Revolutionary 



I I 2 LINCOLN S SPEECHES COMPLETE. 

fathers. I am glad he has done this. I love the senti- 
ments of those old-time men, and shall be most happy 
to abide by their opinions. He shows us that when it 
was in contemplation for the colonies to break off from 
Great Britain and set up a new government for them- 
selves, several of the states instructed their delegates to 
go for the measure, providing each state should be 
allowed to regulate its domestic concerns in its own way. 
I do not quote; but this in substance. This was right. 
I see nothing objectionable in it. I also think it probable 
that it has some reference to the existence of slavery 
among them. I will not deny that it had. But had it 
any reference to the carrying of slavery into new countries.? 
That is the question, and we will let the fathers them- 
selves answer it. 

The same generation of men, and mostly the. same 
individuals of the generation who declared this princi- 
ple, who declared independence, who fought the war of 
the Revolution through, who afterwards made the Consti- 
tution under which we still live — these same men passed 
the ordinance of 'Sy, declaring that slavery should never 
go to the Northwest Territory. I have no doubt Judge 
Douglas thinks they were very inconsistent in this. It is 
a question of discrimination between them and him. 

But there is not an inch of ground left for his claiming 
that their opinions, their example, their authority, are on 
his side in this controversy. 

THE PART VS. THE WHOLE. 

Again, is not Nebraska, while a territory, a part of us.? 
Do we not own the country.? And if we surrender the 



THE MISSOURI COMPROMISE. II 3 

Control of it, do we not surrender the right of self-gov- 
ernment? It is part of ourselves. If you say we shall 
not control it, because it is only part, the same is true 
of every other part; and when all the parts are gone, 
what has become of the whole.!* What is then left of us.? 
What use for the general government, when there is 
nothing left to govern.? 

But you say this question should be left to the people 
of Nebraska, because they are more particularly interest- 
ed. If this be the rule, you must leave it to each individ- 
ual to say for himself whether he will have slaves. What 
better moral right have thirty-one citizens of Nebraska to 
say, that the thirty-second shall not hold slaves, than the 
people of the thirty-one states have to say that slavery 
shall not go into the thirty-second state at all.? 

But if it is a sacred right for the people of Nebraska to 
take and hold slaves there, it is equally their sacred right 
to buy them where they can buy them cheapest; and that, 
undoubtedly, will be on the coast of Africa, provided you 
will consent not to hang them for going there to buy them. 
You must remove this restriction, too, from the sacred 
right of self-government. I am aware, you say, that tak- 
ing slaves from the States to Nebraska, does not make 
slaves of freemen; but the African slave-trader can say 
just as much. He does not catch free negroes and bring 
them here. He finds them already slaves in the hands of 
their black captors, and he honestly buys them at the rate 
of about a red cotton handkerchief a head. This is very 
cheap and it is a great abridgment of the sacred right of 
self-government to hang men for engaging in this profit- 
table trade. Another important objection to this applica- 



114 Lincoln's SPEECHES complete. 

tion of the right of self government, is, that it enables 
the first few to deprive the succeeding many of a free ex- 
ercise of the right of self-government. The first few may 
get slavery in, and the subsequent many can not easily 
get it out. How common is the remark now in the slave 
states: '-If we were only clear of our slaves, how much 
better it would be for us." They are actually deprived of 
the privilege of governing themselves as they would, by 
the action of a very few in the beginning. The same thing 
was true of the whole nation at the time our constitution 
was formed. 

THR VV^HOLE NATION INTERESTED. 

* Whether slavery shall go into Nebraska, or other new 
territories, is not a matter of exclusive concern to the peo- 
ple who may go there. The whole nation is interested 
that the best use shall be made of these territories. We 
want them for the homes of free white people. This 
they can not be, to any considerable extent, if slavery 
shall be planted within them. Slave states are places for 
poor white people to remove from; not to remove to. New 
free states are the places for poor people to go to, and 
better their condition. For this use the nation needs these 
territories. 

Still further; there are constitutional relations between 
the slave and free states, which are degrading to the latter. 
We are under legal obligations to catch and Return their 
runaway slaves to them, a sort of dirt}^ disagreeable job 
which I believe, as a general rule, the slave holders will 
not perform for one another. Then again, in the control 
of the government — the management of the partnership 



THE MISSOURI COMPROMISE. II 5 

affairs — they have greatly the advantage of us. By the 
Constitution each state has two senators, each has a num- 
ber of representatives, in proportion to the number of its 
'people, and each has a number of Presidential electors 
equal to the whole number of its Senators and representa- 
tives together. 

But in ascertaining the number of the people for this 
purpose; five slaves are counted as being equal to three 
whites. The slaves do not vote; they are only counted and 
so used, as to swell the influence of the white people's 
votes. The practical effect of this is more aptly shown by 
a comparison of the states of South Carolina and Maine; 
South Carolina has six representatives and so has Maine. 
South Carolina has eight Presidential electors, and so 
has Maine. This is precise equality so far; and of course 
they are equal in senators, each having two. Thus in the 
control of the government, the two states are equals pre- 
cisely. But how are they in the number of their white 
people. Maine has 581,813, while South Carolina has 
274*567; Maine has twice as many as South Carolina, and 
32,679 over. Thus, each white man in South Carolina, 
is more than double any man in Maine. This is all be- 
cause South Carolina, besides her free people has 384,984 
slaves. The South Carolinian has precisely the same ad- 
vantage over the white man in every other free state, 
as well as in Maine. He is more than the double of 
any one of us in this crowd. 

The same advantage, but not to the same extent, is 
held by all the citizens of the slave states, over those of 
the free; and it is an absolute truth without an exception, 
that there is no voter in any slave state but who has 



Il6 LINCOLN'S SPEECHES COMPLETE. 

more legal power in the government than any voter in 
any free state. There is no instance of exact equality; 
and the disadvantage is against us the whole chapter 
through. This principle in the aggregate, gives the 
slaves in the present Congress, twenty additional repre- 
sentatives, being seven more than the whole majority by 
which they passed the Nebraska bill. 

A WHOLE MAN OR A HALF MAN. 

Now all this is manifestly unfair; yet I do not mention 
it to complain of it, in so far as it is already settled. It 
is in the Constitution, and I do not for that cause or 
any other cause, propose to destroy, or alter, or disre- 
gard the Constitution. I stand to it, fairly, fully, and 
firmly. 

. But when I am told I must leave it altogether to oth- 
er people to say whether new partners are to be bred up 
and brought into the firm, on the same degrading terms 
against me, I respectfully demur. I insist that whether 
I shall be a whole man, or only the part of one, in com- 
parison with others, is a question in which I am some- 
what concerned; and one which no other man can have a 
sacred right of deciding for me. If I am wrong in this — 
if it really be a sacred right of self-government, in the 
man who shall go to Nebraska, to decide whether he shall 
go to Nebraska, to decide whether he will be the equal 
of me or the double of me, then, after he shall have ex- 
ercised that right, and thereby shall have reduced me to 
a still smaller fraction of a man than I already am, I 
should like for some gentleman, deeply skilled in the 
mysteries of sacred rights, to provide himself with a mi- 
croscope, and find out, if he can, what has become of my 



THE MISSOURI COMPROMISE. 11/ 

sacred rights! They will surely be too small for detection 
with the naked eye. 

THE PRESERVATION OF OUR LIBERTIES. 

Finally, I insist that if there is anything which it is the 
duty of the whole people to never intrust to any hands 
but their own, that thing is the preservation and perpet- 
uity of their own liberties and institutions. And if they 
shall think, as I do, that the extension of slavery endan- 
gers them, more than any or all other causes, how re- 
creant to themselves if they submit the question, and 
with it the fate of the country, to a mere handful of men, 
bent only on temporary self-interest. If this question of 
slavery extension were an insignificant one — one having 
no power to do harm — it might be shuffled aside in this 
way; but being, as it is, the great Behemoth of danger, 
shall the strong gripe of the nation be loosened upon him, 
to intrust him to the hands of such feeble keepers? 

I have done with this mighty argument of self-govern- 
ment. Go, sacred thing! Go, in peace. 

But Nebraska is urged as a great Union-saving meas- 
ure. Well, I too, go for saving the Union. Much as I 
h^te slavery,! would consent to the extension of it rather 
than see the Union dissolved, just as I would consent to 
any great evil to avoid a greater one. But when I go to 
Union, saving, I must believe at least, that the means I 
employ have some adaptation to the end. To my mind, 
Nebraska has no such adaptation. 

" It hath no relish of salvation in it" 
It is an agravation, rather, of the only one thing which 
ever endangered the Union, When it came upon us, all 



ii8 Lincoln's speeches complete. 

was peace and quiet. The nation was looking to the 
forming of new bonds of union, and a long course of peace 
and prosperity seemed to lie before us. In the whole 
range of possibility, there scarcely appears to me to have 
been anything out of which the slavery agitation could 
have been revived, except the very project of repealing 
the Missouri Compromise. Every inch of territory we 
owned, already had a definite settlement of th^ slavery 
question, by which all parties were pledged to abide. In- 
deed, there was no uninhabited country on the continent 
which we could acquire; if we except some extreme north- 
ern regions which are wholly out of the question. 

In this state of affairs, the Genius of Discord himself 
could scarcely have invented a way of again getting us by 
the ears, but by turning back, and destroying the peace 
measures of the past. The councils of that Genius seem 
to have prevailed; the Missouri Compromise was repealed; 
and here we are, in the midst of a new slavery agitation, 
such, I think, as we have never seen before. Who is re- 
sponsible for this.? Is it those who resist the measure; 
or those who, causelessly, brought it forward, and pressed 
it through, having reason to know, and in fact, knowing 
it must and would be resisted.? It could only be expected 
by its author, that it would be looked upon as a measure 
for the extension of slavery, aggravated by a gross breach 
of faith. 

YOU CANNOT REPEAL HUMAN NATURE. 

Argue as you will, and long as you will, this is the na- 
ked front and aspect of the measure. . And in this aspect, 
it could not but produce agitation. Slavery is founded in 



119 THE MISSOURI COMPROMISE. 

the selfishness of man's nature — opposition to it, in his 
love of justice. These principles are an eternal antago- 
nism; and when brought into collision so fiercly as slavery 
extension brings them, shocks, and throes, and convul- 
sions must ceaselessly follow. Repeal the Missouri Com- 
promise — repeal all compromise — repeal the Declaration 
of Independence — repeal all past history — you still can 
not repeal human nature. It still will be the abundance 
of man,s heart that slavery extension is wrong; and out 
of the abundance his his heart, his mouth will continue 
to speak. 

The structure, too, of the Nebraska bill is very pecu- 
liar. The people are to decide the question of slavery 
for themselves; but when they are to decide, or how they 
are to decide, or whether when the question is once de- 
cided, it is to remain so, or is to be subject to an indefi- 
nite succession of new trials, the law does not say. Is it 
to be decided by the first dozen settlers who arrive there. 
or is it to await the arival of a hundred? Is it to be de- 
cided by a vote of the people.^ or a vote of the Legislature? 
or, indeed by a vote of any sort? To these questions, the 
law gives no answer. There is a mystery about this; 
for when a member proposed to give the Legislature ex- 
press authority to exclude slavery, it was hooted down by 
the friends of the bill. This fact is worth remembering. 

BOWIE-KNIVES AND SIX-SHOOTERS ARE USED. 

Some Yankees, in the East, are sending emigrants to 
Nebraska, to exclude slavery from it; and, so far as I can 
judge, they expect the question to be decided by voting in 
some way or other. But the Missourians are awake too. 
They are within a stone's throw of the contested ground. 



LINCOLN S SPEECHES COMPLETE. 120 

They hold meetings, and pass resolutions, in which not 
the slightest allusion to voting is made. They resolve that 
slavery already exists in the territory; that more shall go 
there; that they, remaining in Missouri, will protect it; 
and that Abolitionists shall be hung or driven away. 
Through all this, bowie-knives and six-shooters are seen 
plainly enough; but never a glimpse of the ballot-box. 

And, really, what is to be the result of this.!* Each party 
within, having numerous and determined backers with- 
out, is it not probable that the contest will come to blows 
and blood-shed.? Could there be a more apt invention 
to bring about collision and violence, on the slavery ques- 
tion, than this Nebraska project is.? I do not charge or 
believe that such was intended by Congress; but if they 
had literally formed a ring, and placed champions within 
it to fight out the controversy, the fight could be no more 
likely to come off than it is. And if this fight should be- 
gin, is it likely to take a very peaceful Union saving turn? 
Will not the first drop of blood, so shed, be the real knell 
of the Union.? 

The Missouri Compromise ought to be restored. For 
the sake of the union it ought to be restored. We ought 
to elect a house of representatives which will vote its res- 
toration. If, by any means, we omit to do this, what 
follows.? Slavery may or may not, be established in Ne- 
braska. But whether it be or not, we shall have repudi- 
ated — discarded from the councils of the nation — the 
spirit of compromise; for who, after this, will ever trust 
in a national compromise.? The spirit of mutual conces- 
sion — that spirit which first gave us the Constitution, and 
which has thrice saved the Union — we shall have stran- 
gled and cast from us forever. 



121 THE MISSOURI COMPROMISE. 

And what shall we have in lieu of it? The South, flushed 
with triumph and tempted to excesses; the North, betray- 
ed as they believe, brooding on wrong and burning for re- 
venge. One side will provoke, the other resent. The 
one will taunt, the other defy; one aggravates, the other 
retaliates. Already a few in the North defy all constitu- 
tional restraints, resist the execution of fugitive law, and 
even menace the institution of slavery in the states where 
it exists. Already a few in the South claim the constitu- 
tional right to take to and hold slaves in the free states — 
demand the revival of the stave-trade — and demand a 
treaty with Great Britain, by which fugitive slaves may 
be reclaimed from Canada. As yet they are but a few on 
either side. It is a grave question for the lovers of the 
Union, whether the final destruction of the Missouri 
Compromise, and with it the spirit of all compromise, will 
or will not embolden and embitter each of these, and fa- 
tally increase the number of both. 

NATIONAL FAITH AND CONFIDENCE. 

But restore the compromise, and what then.^* We 
thereby restore the national faith, the national confidence, 
the national feeling of brotherhood. We thereby rein- 
state the spirit of concession and compromise — that spir- 
it which has never failed us in past perils, and which 
may be safely trusted for all the future, The South 
ought to join in doing this. The peace of the nation is 
as dear to them as to us. In memories of the past and 
hopes of the future, they share as largely as we. It 
would be on their part, a great act — great in its spirit, 
and great in its effect. It would be worth to the nation 



122 LINCOLN'S SPEECHES COMPLETE. 

a hundred years of peace and prosperity. And what of 
sacrifice would they make? They only surrender to us 
what they gave to us for a consideration long, long ago; 
what they have uot now asked for, struggled, or cared 
for; what has been thrust upon them, uot less to their 
own astonishment than to ours. 

RESTORE THE COMPROMISE. 

But it is said we can not restore it; that though we 
elect every member of the lower House, the Senate is 
still against us. It is quite true that, of the Senators 
who passed the Nebraska bill, a majority of the whole 
Senate will retain their seats in spite of the elections 
of this and the next year. But if, at these elections, 
there several constituencies shall clearly express their will 
against Nebraska, will these Senators disregard their will.? 
Will they neither obey, nor make room for those who will.? 

But even if we fail to technically restore the compro- 
mise, it is still a great point to carry a popular vote in 
favor of the restoration. The moral weight of such a 
vote can not be estimated too highly. The authors of Ne- 
braska are not satisfied with the destruction of the com- 
promise — an indorsement of this principle they proclaim 
to be the great object. With them, Nebraska alone is a 
small matter — to establish a principle for future use is 
what they particularly desire. 

That future use is to be the planting of slavery wher- 
ever in the wide world local and unorganized opposition 
can not prevent it Now, if you wish to give them this 
indorsement, if you wish to establish this principle, do 
so. I shall regret it, but it is your right. On the con- 



THE MISSOURI COMPROMISE. 1 23 

trary, if you are opposed to the principle — intend to give 
it no such indorsement— let no wheedling, no sophistry, 
divert you from throwing a direct vote against it. 

STAND BY THE RIGHT. 

Some men, mostly Whigs, who condemn the repeal of 
the Missouri Compromise, nevertheless hesitate to^ go 
for its restoration, lest they be thrown in company with 
the Abolitionist. Will they allow me, as an old Whig, 
to tell them, good-humoredly, that I think this is very 
silly.^ Stand with anybody that stands right. Stand 
with him while he is right, and part with him when he 
goes wrong. Stand with the Abolitionists in restoring 
the Missouri Compromise, and stand against him when 
he attempts to repeal the fugitive slave law. In the lat- 
ter case you stand with the Southern disunionist. What 
of that? you are still right. In both cases you are right. 
In both cases you oppose the dangerous extremes. In 
both you stand on middle ground, and hold the ship level 
and steady. In both you are national, and nothing less 
than national. This is the good old whig ground. To 
desert such ground because of any company is to be less 
than a whig — less than a man — less than an American. 

I particularly object to the new position which the 
avowed principle of this Nebraska law gives to slavery in 
the body politic. I object to it because it assumes that 
there can be moral right, in the enslaving of one man 
by another. I object to it as a dangerous dalliance for 
a free people — a sad evidence that feeling prosperity, we 
forget right — that liberty, as a principle, we have ceased 
to revere. 



124 LINCOLN'S SPEECHES COMPLETE. 

I object to it, because the fathers of the republic eschew- 
ed and rejected it. The argument of ''necessity," was 
the only argument they ever admitted in favor of slavery; 
and so far, and so far only, as it carried them did they 
ever go. They found the institution existing among us, 
which they could not help, and they cast blame upon the 
British king for having permitted its introduction. Be- 
fore the Constitution they prohibited its introduction into 
the Northwestern Territory, the only country we owned 
then free from it. At the framing and adoption of the 
Constitution, they forebore to so much as to mention the 
'•slave, " or "slavery;" in the whole instrument. In the 
provision for the recovery of fugitives, the slave is spoken 
of as a '-person held to service or labor." In that pro- 
hibiting the abolition of the African slave-trade for twen- 
ty years, that trade is spoken of as "The migration or 
importation of such persons as any of the states now ex- 
isting shall think proper to admit," etc. These are the 
only provisions alluding to slavery. Thus the thing is hid 
away in the Constitution, just as an afflicted man hides 
away a wen or cancer, which he dares not cut out at once 
lest he bleed to death; with the promise nevertheless, 
that the cutting may begin at the end of a certain time. 
Less than this our fathers could not do; and more they 
would not do. Necessity drove them so far, and farther 
they would not go. But this is not all. The earliest 
Congress under the Constitution took the same view of 
slavery. They hedged and hemmed it in to the narrow- 
est limits of necessity. 

A STRING OF IMPORTANT FACTS. 

In 1794, they prohibited an out-going slave-trade — 



THE MISSOURI COMPROMISE. 12^ 

that is, th6 taking of slaves from the United States to 
sell. 

In 1798, they prohibited the bringing of slaves from 
Africa into the Mississippi Territory — this teritory then 
comprising what are now the states of Mississippi and 
Alabama. This was ten years before they had the au- 
thority to do the same thing as to the states existing at 
the adoption of the Constitution, 

In 1800, they prohibited American citizens from trad- 
ing in slaves between foreign countries, as, for instance, 
from Afri:a to Brazil. 

In 1803, they passed a law in aid of one or two slave 
state laws, in restraint of the internal slave-trade. 

In 1807, in apparent hot haste, they passed the law 
nearly a year in advance, to take effect the first day of 
1 808 — the very first day the Constitution would permit — 
prohibiting the African slave-trade by heavy pecuniary 
and corporal penalties. 

lu 1820, finding these provisions ineffectual, they de- 
clared the slave-trade piracy, and annexed to it the ex- 
treme penalty of death. While all this was passing in 
the General Government, five or six of the original slave 
states had adopted systems of gradual emancipation; by 
which the institution was rapidly becoming extinct with- 
in these limits. 

Thus we see the plain, unmistakable spirit of that age, 
toward slavery, was hostility to the principal, and toler- 
ation only by necessity. 

Patting a so called * 'sacred right" on its back. 

But now it is to be transformed into a ''sacred^ right.'* 
Nebraska brings it forth, places it on the hig^h road to ex- 



126 ' Lincoln's speeches complete. 

tension and perpetuity; and with a pat on its back, says 
to it, '*Go and God speed you." Henceforth it is to be 
the chief jewel of the nation — the very figure-head of the 
ship of state. Little by little, but steadily as man's 
march to the grave, we have been giving up the old for 
the new faith. Near eighty years ago' we began by de- 
claring that all men are created equal, but now from that 
beginning we have run down to the other declaration, that 
for some men to enslave others is a * 'sacred right of self- 
government. " These principals can not stand together. 
They are as opposite as God and Mammon; and whoever 
holds to the one must despise the other. When Pettit, 
in connection with his support of the Nebraska bill, call- 
ed ther declaration of Independence *'a self-evident lie,' 
he only did what consistency and candor require all other 
Nebraska men to do. Of the forty odd Nebraska Sena- 
tors who sat present and heard him, no one rebuked him. 
Nor am I apprised that any Nebraska newspaper, or any 
Nebraska orator; in the whole nation, has ever yet rebuk- 
ed him. If this had been said among Marion's men, 
Southerners though they were, what would have be- 
come of the man who said it? If this had been said to 
the men who captured Andre, the man who said it would 
probably have been hung sooner than Andre was. If it 
had been said in old Independence Hall, seventy eight 
years ago, the very door-keeper would have throttled the 
man and thrust him into the street. 

Lincoln' s earnest appeal. 
Let no one be deceived. The spirit of seventy-six and 
the spirit of Nebraska are utter antagonism; and the for- 
mer is being rapidly displaced by the latter. 



THE MISSOURI COMPROxMlSE. 127 

Fellow-countrym-en: Americans South as well as North, 
shall we make no effort to arrest this? Already the lib- 
eral party throughout the world express the apprehension 
' 'that the one retrograde institution in America is under- ,' 
mining the principles of progress, and fatally violating/ 
the noblest political system the world ever saw." This is' 
not the taunt of enemies, but the warning of friends. Is 
it quite safe to disregard it — to despise it.? Is there no 
danger to liberty itself, in discarding the easliest practice, 
and first precept of our ancient faith.? In our greedy 
chase to make profit of the negro, let us beware lest we 
''cancel and tear to pieces" even the white man's chart- 
er of freedom. 

TRAILED IN THE DUST. 

Our republican robe is soiled, and trailed in the dust. 
Let us re-purify it. Let us turn and wash it white, in 
the spirit, if not in the blood, of the Revolution. Let 
us turn slavery from its "moral rights" back upon its ex- 
isting legal rights and its arguments of "necessity." 
Let us return it to the position our fathers gave 
it, and there let it rest in peace. Let us readopt the 
Declaration of Independence, and with it the practices 
and policy which harmonize with it. Let North and 
South — let all Americans — -let all lovers of liberty every 
where — join in the great and good work. If we do this, 
we shall not only have saved the Union, but we shall 
have so saved it as to make and to keep it, forever 
worthy of the saving. We shall have so saved it, that 
the succeeding millions of free happy people, the world 
over, shall rise up and call us blessed, to the latest gen- 
erations. 



128 Lincoln's speeches complete. 

At Springfield twelve days ago, where I had spoken 
substantially as I have here, Judge Douglas replied to 
me — and as he is to reply to me here, I shall attempt to 
anticipate him, by noticing some of the points he made 
there. He commenced by stating I had assumed all the 
way through that the principle of the Nebraska bill would 
have the effect of extending slavery. He denied that 
this was intended or that this effect would follow. 

I will not reopen the argument upon this point. That 
such was the intention, the world believed at the start, 
and will continue to believe. This was the countenance 
of the thing; and both friends and enemies instantly re- 
cognized it as such. That countenance cannot now be 
changed by argument. You can as easily argue the color 
of the negro's skin. Like the "bloody hand," you may 
wash it and wash it, the red witness of guilt still sticks, 
and stares horribly at you. 

Next he says, Congressional intervention never pre- 
vented slavery anywhere — that it did not prevent it in the 
Northwestern Territory, nor in Illinois — that, in fact, 
Illinois came into the Union as a slave state — that the 
principle of the Nebraska bill expelled it from Illinois, 
from several old states, from everywhere. 

THE ORDINANCE OF 8/. 

Now this is mere quibbling all the way through. If 
the ordinance of ^y did not keep slavery out of the 
Northwest Territory, how happens it that the northwest 
shore of the Ohio River is entirely free from it, while the 
southeast shore, less than a mile distant along nearly the 
whole length of the river, is entirely covered with it.^ 

If that ordinance did not keep it out of Illinois, what 
was it that made the difference between Illinois and Mis- 



THE MISSOURI COMPROMISE. 129 

souri? They lie side by side, the Mississippi river only 
dividing them; while their early settlements were within 
the same latitude. Between iSioand 1820, the number 
of slaves in Missouri increased 7,211; while in lUinois, 
in the same ten years, they decreased 51. This appears 
by the census returns. During nearly all of ihat ten 
years both, were territories — not states. 

During this time, the ordinance forbade slavery to go 
into Illinois; and nothing forbade it go into Missouri. 
It did go into Missouri, and did not go into IlHnois. 
That is the fact. Can any one doubt as to the reason of it.? 

But, he says, Illinois came into the Union as a slave 
state. Silence, perhaps, would be the best answer to 
this flat contradiction of the known history of the coun- 
try. What are the facts upon which this bold assertion 
is based.? 

HOW ILLINOIS CAME INTO THE UNION. 

When we first acquired the country, as far back as 
1787, there were some slaves within it, held by the 
French inhabitants of Kaskaskia. The territorial legis- 
lation admitted a few negroes from the slave states, as 
indentured servants. One year after the adoption of the 
the first State Constitution, the whole number of them 
was — what do you think.? Just 117 — while the aggre- 
gate free population was 55,094 — about 470 to i. Upon 
this state of facts, the people framed their Constitution, 
prohibiting the further introduction of slavery with a 
sort of guarantee to the owners of the few indentured 
servants, giving freedom to their children to be born 
thereafter, and making no mention whatever of any sup- 
pos'ed slave for life. Out of this small matter, the judge 



130 Lincoln's speeches co.rpLETE. 

manufactures his argument that Illinois came into the 
Union as a slave state. Let the facts be the answer to 
the argument. 

The principles of the Nebraska bill, he says expelled 
slavery from Illinois. The principle of that bill first 
planted it here — that is it first came because there was 
no law to prevent it — first came before we owned the 
country; and finding it here, and having the ordinance 
of 87 to prevent its increasing, our people struggled along 
and finally got rid of it the best they could. 

But the principle of the Nebraska bill abolished slavery 
in several of the old states. Well, it is true that several 
of the old states, in the last quarter of the last century, 
did adopt systems of gradual emancipation, by which the 
institution has finally become extinct within their limits; 
but it may or may not be true that the principle of 
the Nebraska bill was the cause that led to the adoption 
of these measures It is now more than fifty years since 
the last of these states adopted its system of emancipa- 
tion. 

If the Nebraska bill is the real author of the benevo- 
lent works, it is rather deplorable that it has for so long 
a time ceased working altogether, Is there not some 
reason to suspect that it was the principle of the Revo- 
lution, and not the principle of the Nebraska bill, that 
led to emancipation in these old states.? Leave it to the 
people of those old emancipation states, and I am quite 
certain that they will decide that neither that nor any 
other good thing ever did or ever will come of the Ne- 
braska bill. 

In the course of my main argument, Judge Douglas 



THE MISSOURI COMPROMISE. 131 

interrupted me to say that the principle of the Nebraska 
bill was very old; that it originated when God made 
man, and placed good and evil before him, allowing him 
to choose for himself, being responsible for the choice he 
should make. At the time, I thought this was merely 
playful; and I answered it accordingly. But in his re- 
ply to me, he renewed it as a serious argument. In 
seriousness, then, the facts of this proposition are not 
true as stated. God did not place good and evil before 
man, telling him to make his choice. On the contrary, 
he did tell him there was one tree, of the fruit of which 
he should not eat, upon pain of certain death. I should 
scarcely wish so strong a prohibition against slavery in 
Nebraska. 

THE DIVINE RIGHT OF KINGS. 

But this argument strikes me as not a little remarkable 
in another particular — in its strong resemblance to the 
old argument for the "Divine right of Kings." By the 
former the white man is to do just as he pleases with his 
white subjects, being responsible to God alone. By the 
latter, the white man is to do just as he pleases with 
black slaves, being responsible to God alone. The two 
things are precisely alike; and it is but natural that they 
should find similar arguments to sustain them. 

I had argued that the application of the principle of 
self-government; as contended for, would require the re- 
vival of the African slave trade — that no argument could 
be made in favor ot a man's right to take slaves to Ne- 
braska, wich could not be equally well made in favor of 
his right to bring them from the coast of Africa. The 
judge replied that the Constitution requires the suppres- 



132 Lincoln's speeches complete. 

sion of the foreign slave-trade; but does not require the 
prohibition of slavery in the territories. That is a mis- 
take, in point of fact. The Constitution does not require 
the action of Congress in either case; and it does autho- 
rize it in both. And so, there is still no difference be- 
tw^een the cases. 

In regard to w^hat I had said of the advantage the slave 
states have over the free, in the matter of represent- 
ation, the judge replied that we, in the free states, count 
five free negroes as five white people, while in the slave 
states they count five slaves as three whites only; 
and that the advantage, at last, was on the side of the 
free states. 

Now, in the slave states, they count free negroes just 
as we do; and it so happens that, besides their slaves, 
they have as many free negroes as we have, and thirty- 
three thousand over. Thus, their free negroes more 
than balance ours; and their advantage over us, in con- 
sequence of their ^aves, still remains as I stated it. 
Webster's definition of ''compromise." 

In reply to my argument, that the Compromise Meas- 
ures of 1850 were a system of equivalents, and that the 
provisions of no one of them could fairly be carried to 
other subjects, without its corresponding equivalent be- 
ing carried with it, the judge denied outright that these 
measures had any connection with or dependence upon 
each other. This is mere desperation. If they had no 
connection, why are they always spoken of in connec- 
tion.? Why has he so spoken of them a thousand times.? 
Why has he constantly called them a series of measures.? 
Why does every body call them a compromise.? Why 



THE MISSOURI COMPROMISE. 133 

was California kept out of the Union, six or seven months 
if it was not because of its connection with the other 
measures? Webster's leading definition of the verb, *'to 
compromise," is, <'to adjust and settle a difference, by 
mutual agreement, with concessions of claims by the par- 
ties. ''This conveys precisely the popular understand- 
ing of the word "compromise." 

We knew, before the judge told us, that these measures 
passed separately, and in distinct bills; and that no two 
of them were passed by the votes of precisely the same 
members. But we also know, and so does he know, 
that no one of them could have passed both branches of 
Congress, but for the understanding that 'the others were 
to pass also. Upon this understanding, each got votes, 
which it would have got in no other way. Is is this fact 
that gives to the measures their true character; and it is 
the universal knowedge of this fact, that has given them 
the name of "Compromises," so expressive of that true 
character. 

UTAH AND NEW MEXICO. 

I had asked, ' 'if in carrying the provisions of the 
Utah nnd New Mexico laws to Nebraska, you could clear 
away other objection, how can you leave Nebraska "per- 
fectly free" to introdiye slavery before she forms a 
constitution, during her territorial government.^ while 
the Utah and New Mexico laws only authorized it when 
they form Constitutions, and are admitted into the 
Union.?" To this Judge Douglas answered that the 
Utah and New Mexico laws, also authorized it before, 
and to prove this, he read from one of their laws, as 
follows: 
That the legislative power of said territory shall extend to all rightful 



134 LINCOLN S SPEECHES COMPLETE. 

subjects of legislation, consistent with the Constitution of the United States 
and the provisions of this act. 

Now it is perceived from the reading of this, that there 
is nothing express upon the subject; but that the au- 
thority is sought to be impHed merely, for the general 
provisions of "all rightful subjects of legislation." In 
reply to this I insist, as a legal rule of construction, as 
well as the plain popular view of the matter, that the 
express provision for Utah and New Mexico coming in 
with slavery if they choose, when they shall form Con- 
stitutions, is an exclusion of all implied authority on the" 
same subject; that Congress having the subject distinct- 
ly in their minds, when they made the express provision, 
they therein expressed their whole meaning on that sub- 
ject. 

OREGON AND WASHINGTON. 

The judge rather insinuated that I had found it con- 
venient to forget the Washington territorial law passed 
•in 1853. This was a division of Oregon, organizing the 
northern part as the Territory of Washington. He as- 
serted, that by this act the ordinance of ^y, theretofore 
existing in Oregon, was repealed; that nearly all the 
members of Congress voted for it. beginging in the 
House of Representatives; witfi Charles Allen, of 
Massachusetts, and ending with Richard Yates of Ill- 
inois; and that he could not understand how those 
who now oppose the Nebraska bill, so voted there, un- 
less it was because it was then too soon after both 
the great political parties had ratified the Compromises 
of 1850, and the ratification therefore too fresh to be then 
repudiated. 

Now I had seen the Washington act before; and I 



THE MISSOURI COMPROMISE. I 3 5 

have carefully examined it since; and I aver that there is 
no repeal of the ordinance of 87 or of any prohibition of 

slavery in it. , 

In express terms, there is absolutely nothmg m the 
whole law upon the subject; in fact, nothing to lead a 
reader to think of the subject. To my judgement it is 
equally free from everything from which repeal can be 
legally imphed; but, however this may be, are men now 
to be entrapped by a legal implication, extracting from 
covert language, introduced , perhaps, for the very pur- 
pose of entraping them.? I sincerely wish every man 
could read this law quite through, carefully watching 
every sentence, and every line for a repeal of the ordi- 
nance of '87, or anything equivalent to it. 

Another point on the Washington act. If it was in- 
tended to be modeled after the Utah and New Mexico 
acts, as Judge Douglas insists, why was it not inserted 
in it, as in them, that Washington was to come in with 
or without slavery as she may choose at the adoption of 
her Constitution.? It has no such provision in it; and I 
defy the ingenuity of man to give a reason for the omis- 
sion, other than that it was not intended to follow the 
Utah and New Mexico laws in regard to the question of 

slavery. 

The Washington act not only differs vitally from the 
Utah and New Mexico acts, but the Nebraska act differs 
vitally from both. By the latter act the people are left 
-perfectly free" to regulate their own domestic con- 
cerns, etc. ; but in all the former, all their laws are to be 
submitted to Congress, and if disapproved are to be null. 
The Washington act goes even further; it absolutely pro- 



136 Lincoln's speeches complete. 

hibits the territorial legislation by very strong and guard- 
ed language, from establishing banks, or borrowing money 
on the faith of the territory. Is this the sacred right of 
self-government we hear vaunted so much? No, sir; the 
Nebraska bill finds no model in the acts of '50, or the 
Washington act, It finds no model in any law from 
Adam till to-day. As Phillips says of Napoleon, the 
Nebraska act is grand, gloomy, and peculiar; wrapped in 
the solitude of its own originality, without a model and 
without a shadow upon the earth. 

FOR WHOM V^AS OUR COUNTRY MADE } 

In the course of his reply, Senator Douglas remarked^ 
in substance, that he had always considered this govern- 
ment was made for the white people and not for the 
negroes. Why, in point of mere fact, I think so too. 
But in this remark of the judge there is a significance 
which I think is the key to the great mistake (if there 
is any such mistake) which he has made in this Nebraska 
measure. It shows that the judge has no very vivid im- 
pression that the negro is a human; and consequently 
has no idea that there can be any moral question in leg- 
islating about him. In his view, the questions of whether 
a new country shall be slave or free, is a matter of as 
utter indifference, as it is whether his neighbor shall 
plant his farm with tobacco, or stock it with horned cat- 
tle. Now whether this view be right or wrong, it is very 
certain that the great mass of mankind take a totally 
different view. They consider slavery a great moral 
wrong; and their feeling against it is not very evanescent, 
but eternal. It lies at the very foundation of their sense 
of justice, and it cannot be trifled with. It is a great 



THE MISSOURI COMPROMISE. 137 

and durable element of popular action, and I think, no 
statesman can safely disregard it. 

PITCHFORKING DOUGLAS. 

Our Senator also objects that those who oppose him 
in this measure do not entirely agree with one another. 
He reminds me that in my firm adherence to the Consti- 
tutional rights of the slave states. I differ widely from 
others who are co-operating with me in opposing the 
Nebraska bill; and he says it is not quite fair to oppose 
him in this variety of ways. He should remember that 
he took us by surprise — astounded us — by this measure. 
We were thunderstruck and stunned; and we reeled and 
fell in utter confusion. But we rose each fighting, grasp- 
ing whatever he could first reach — a scythe — a pitch- 
fork — a chopping-ax, or a butcher's cleaver. We struck 
in the direction of the sound; and we are rapidly closing 
in upon him. He must not think to divert us from our 
purpose by showing us that our drill, our dress, and our 
weapons, are not entirely perfect and uniform. When 
the storm shall be passed, he shall find us still Americans; 
no less devoted to the continued union and prosperity of 
the country than heretofore. 

THE MEMORY OF CLAY AND WEBSTER. 

Finally, the judge invokes against me the memory of 
Clay and of Webster. They were great men, and men 
of great deeds. But where have I assailed them .? For 
what is it that their life-long enemy shall now make 
profit by assuming to defend them against me, their 
life-long friend.? I go against the repeal of the Mis- 
souri Compromise; did they ever go for it.? They went 



138 Lincoln's speeches complete. 

for the Compromises of 1850; did I ever go against them? 
They were greatly devoted to the Union; to the small 
measure of my ability was I ever less so? Clay and 
Webster were dead before this question arose; by what 
authority shall our Senator say they would espouse his 
side of it, if alive? Mr. Clay was the leading spirit in 
making the Missouri Compromise; is it very credible 
that if now alive, he would take the lead in the break- 
ing of it? The truth is that some support from Whigs 
is now a necessity with the judge, and for this is it that 
the names of Clay and Webster are now invoked. His 
old friends have deserted him in such numbers as to 
leave too few to live by. He came to his own, and his 
own received him not; and lo! he turns unto the 
Gentiles. 

A FINAL WORD ON A DESPERATE ASSUMPTION. 

A word now as to the judge's desperate assumption 
that the Compromises of 1850 has no connection with 
one another; that Illinois came into the Union as a slave 
state; and some other similar ones. This is no other 
than a bold denial of the history of the country. If we 
do not know that the Compromises of 1850 were de- 
pendent on each other; if we do not know that Illinois 
came into the Union as a free state — we do not know 
anything. If we do not know these things, we do not 
know that we ever had a Revolutionary war, or such a 
chief as Washington. To deny these things is to deny 
our national axioms — or dogmas at least; and it puts 
an end to all argument. If a man will stand up, and 
assert, and repeat, and reassert, that two and two do 
not make four, I know nothing in the power of argument 



THE MISSOURI COMPROMISE. 1 39 

that can stop him. I think I can answer the judge so 
long as he sticks to the premises; but when he flies from 
them, I cannot work an argument into the consistency 
of i maternal gag, and actually close his mouth with it. 
In such a case I can only commend him to the seventy 
thousand answers just in from Pennsylvania, Ohio, and 
Indiana. 



''THE AGEIS NOT DEAD." 

[Delivered in the Court House at Springfield, 111. in 1855, to only 
three persons. Mr. Herndon got out huge posters, announcing the event, 
employed a band to parade the streets and drum up a crowd, and bells 
were rung, but only three persons were present. Mr. Lincoln was to 
have spoken on the slavery question.] 

Gentlemen: — This meeting is larger than I knew it 
would be, as I knew Herndon, (Lincoln's partner) and 
myself would come, but I did not know that any one else 
would be here; and yet another has come — you John 
Paine, (the Janitor.) 

These are bad times, and seem out of joint. All 
seems dead, dead, dead; but the age is not yet dead; it 
liveth as sure as our Maker liveth. Under all this 
seeming want of life and motion, the world does move 
nevertheless. Be hopeful. And now let us adjourn and 
appeal to the people. 



THE BALLET vs. THE BULLET. 

(Delivered to a Delegation at Springfield, 111. that proposed to visit 
Kansas Territory in the physical defence of freedom, in 1856. Hon. W. 
H. Herndon was in this Delegation.) 



I40 Lincoln's speeches complete. 

Friends: — I agree with you in Providence. I believe 
in the providence of the most men, the largest purse, 
and the longest cannon. You are in the minority — 
in a sad minority; and you can't hope to succeed, reason- 
ing from all human experience. You would rebel against 
the Government, and redden your hands in the blood of 
your countrymen. If you are in the minority, as you 
are, you can't succeed I say again and again, against 
the Government, with a great majority of its best citizens 
backing it, and when they have the most men, the 
longest purse, and the biggest cannon you can't succeed. 
If you have the majority, as some say you have, you can 
succeed with the ballot, throwing away the bullet. You 
can peacably then redeem the Government, and preserve 
the liberties of mankind, through your votes and voice 
and moral influence. 

Let there be peace. In a democracy, where the ma- 
jority rule by by the ballot through the forms of law, 
these physical rebellions and bloody resistances, are 
radically wrong; unconstitutional, and are treason. 
Better bear the ills you have than fly to those you know 
not of. Our own Declaration of Independence says that 
governments long established, for trivial causes should 
not be resisted. Revolutionize through the ballot-box, 
and restore the government once more to the affiections 
and hearts of men, by making it express; as it was in- 
tended to do, the highest spirit of justice and liberty. 

Your attempt, if there be such, to resist the laws of 
Kansas by force, is criminal and wicked; and all your 
feeble attempts will be follies, and end in bringing sorrow 
on your heads, and ruin the cause you would freely die 
to perserve. 



IN REPLY TO JUDGE DOUGLAS. 

(Delivered in Representatives' Hall, Springfield, 111., June 26, 1857.) 

Fellow-Citizens: — I am here to-night, partly by the 
invitation of some of you, and partly by my own inclina- 
tion. Two weeks ago, Judge Douglas spoke here on the 
several subjects of Kansas, the Dred Scott decision, and 
Utah. I listened to the speech at the time, and have 
read the report of it since. It was intended to contro- 
vert opinions which I think just, and to assail (politi- 
cally, not personally) those men who, in common with 
me, entertain those opinions. For this reason I wished 
then, and still wish, to make some answer to it, which I 
now take the opportunity of doing. 

UTAH. 

I begin with Utah. If it prove to be true, as is prob- 
able, that the people of Utah are in oben rebellion to 
the United States, then Judge Douglas is in favor of 
repealing their territorial organization, and attaching 
them to the adjoining states for judicial purposes. I 
say, too, if they are in rebellion, they ought to be some- 
how coerced to obedience; and I am not now prepared 
to admit or deny that the judge's mode of coercing them 
is not as good as any. The Republicans can fall in with 
it, without taking back anything they have ever said. 
To be sure, it would be a considerable backing down by 

[141] 



142 llncoln's speeches complete. 

Judge Douglas from his much-vaunted doctrine of self- 
government for the territories; but this is only additional 
proof of what was very plain from the beginning, that 
that doctrine was a mere deceitful pretense for the benefit 
of slavery. Those who could not see that much in the 
Nebraska act itself, which forced Governors and Secre- 
taries, and Judges, on the people of the territories, with- 
out their choice or consent, could not be made to see, 
though one should rise from the dead. 

But in all this, it is very plain the judge evades the 
only question the Republicans have ever pressed upon 
the Democracy in regard to Utah. That question the 
judge well knew to be this: '*If the people of Utah 
shall peacefully form a State Constitution tolerating 
polygamy, will the Democracy admit them into the 
Union.^" There is nothing in the United States Con- 
stitution or law against polygamy; and why is it not a 
part of the judge's "sacred right of self-government" for 
the people to have it, or rather to keep it, if they choose.^ 
These questions, so far as I know, the judge never 
answers. It might involve^ the Democracy to answer 
them either way, and they go unanswered. 

KANSAS. 

As to Kansas. The substance of the judge's speech 
on Kansas is an effort to put the Free State men in the 
wrong for not voting at the election of delegates to the 
Constitutional Convention. He says: 

' 'There is every reason to hope and believe that the law will be fairly 
interpreted and impartially executed, so as to insure to every bona fida 
inhabitant the free and quiet exercise of the elective franchise." 

It appears extraordinary that Judge Douglas should 



THE MISSOURI COMPROMISE. 1 43 

make such a statement. He knows that, by the law, 
no one can vote who has not been registered; and he 
knows that the Free State men place their refusal to 
vote on the ground that but few of them have been reg- 
istered. It is possible this is not true, but Judge Doug- 
las knows it is asserted to be true in letters, newspapers, 
and public speeches, and borne by every mail, and blown 
by every breeze to the eyes and ears of the world. He 
knows it is boldly declared that the people of many whole 
counties, and many whole neighborhoods in others, are 
left unregistered; yet he does not venture to contradict 
the declaration, or to point out how they can vote with- 
out being registered; but he just slips along, not seeming 
to know there is any such question of fact and compla- 
cently declares: 

' 'There is every reason to hope and believe that the law will be fairly 
interpreted and impartially executed, so as to insure to every bona fida 
inhabitant the free and quiet exercise of the elective franchise." 

I readily agree that if all had a chance to vote, they 
ought to have voted. If, on the contrary, as they allege 
and Judge Douglas ventures not to particularly contra- 
dict, few only of the Free State men had a chance to 
vote, they were perfectly right in staying from the polls 
in a body. 

KANSAS ELECTION. 

By the way, since the judge spoke, the Kansas election 
has come off. The judge expressed his confidence that 
all the Democrats in Kansas would do their duty — in- 
cluding * 'Free State Democrats" of course. The returns 
received here, as yet, are very incomplete; but so far as 
they go, they indicate that only about one sixth of the 



144 LINCOLN S SPEECHES COMPLETE. 

registered voters, have really voted; and this, too, when 
not more, perhaps, than one-half of the rightful voters 
have been registered, thus showing the thing to have 
been altogether the most exquisite farce ever enacted. I 
am watching with considerable interest, to ascertain what 
figure * 'the Free State Democrats " cut in the concern. 
Of course they voted — all Democrats do their duty — and 
of course they did not vote for Slave State candidates. 
We soon shall know how many delegates they elected, 
how many candidates they had pledged to a free state, 
and how many votes were cast for them. 

Allow me to barely whisper my suspicions that there 
were no such things in Kansas as * 'Free State Demo- 
crats" — that they were altogether mythical, good only 
to figure in newspapers and speeches in the free states. 
If there should prove to be one real living Free State 
Democrat in Kansas, I suggest that it might be well to 
Cj.tch him, and stuff and perserve his skin as an interest- 
ing specimen of that soon to be extinct variety of the 
genus Democrat. 

DRED SCOTT DECISION. 

And now as to the Dred Scott decision. That decision 
declares two propositions — first that a negro can not sue 
in the United States Courts; and secondly, that Congress 
can not prohibit slavery in the territories. It was made 
by a divided court — dividing differently on the different 
points. Judge Douglas does not discuss the merits of 
the decision; and in that respect, I shall follow his ex- 
ample, believing I could no more improve on McLean 
and Curtis, than he could on Taney. 

He denounces all who question the correctness of that 



THE MISSOURI COMPROMISE. 14^ 

decision, as offering violent resistance to it. But who 
resists it.? Who has, in spite of the decision, declared 
Dred Scott free, and resisted the authority of his master 
over him? 

Judicial decisions have tv^o uses — first, to absolutely 
determine the case decided; and secondly to indicate to 
the public how other similar cases will be decided when 
they arise. For the latter use, they are called ''prece- 
dents" and ''authorities." 

We believe as much as Judge Douglas (perhaps more) 
in obedience to, and respect for, the judicial department 
of governor. We think its decisions on Constitutional 
questions, when fully settled, should control, not only 
the particular cases decided, but the general policy of 
the country, subject to be disturbed only by amendments 
of the Constitution as provided in that instrument itself. 
More than this would be revolution. But we think the 
Dred Scott decision is erroneous. We know the court 
that made it has often overruled its own decisions, and 
we shall do what we can to have it overrule this. We 
offer no resistance to it. 

Judicial decisions are of greater or less authority as 
precedents, according to circumstances. That this should 
be so, accords both with common sense, and the custom- 
ary understanding of the legal profession. 

If this important decision had been made by the unan- 
imous concurrence of the judges, and without any appa- 
rent partisan bias, and in accordance with legal public 
expectation, and with the steady practice of the depart- 
ments throughout our history, and had been, in no part, 
bassed on assumed historical facts which are not really 



146 LlNCOLN^S SPEECHES COMPLETE. 

true; or, if wanting in some of these, it has been before 
the court more than once, and has there been affirmed 
and reaffirmed through a course of years, it then might 
be, perhaps would be, factious, nay, even revokitionary, 
not to acquiesce in it as a precedent. 

But when, as it is true, we find it wanting in all these 
claims to the public confidence, it is not resistance, it 
is not factious, it is not even disrespectful, to treat it as 
not having yet quite established a settled doctrine for 
the country. But Judge Douglas consideres this view 
awful. Hear him: 

' 'The courts are the tribunals prescribed by the Constitution and created 
by the authority of the people to determine, expound, and enforce the law. 
Hence, whoever resists the final decision of the highest judicial tribunal, 
aims a deadly blow to our whole Republican system of government — a 
blow, which, if successful, would place all our rights and liberties at the 
mercy of passion, anarchy, and violence. I repeat, therefore, that if re- 
sistance to the decision of the Supreme Court of the United States in a 
matter like the points decided in the Dred Scott case, clearly within their 
jurisdiction as defined by the Constitution, shall be forced upon the 
country as a political issue, it will become a distinct and naked issue be- 
tween the friends and enemies of the Constitution — the friends and the 
enemies of the supremacy of the laws. 

GEN. JACKSON. 

Why, this same Supreme Court once decided a na- 
tional bank to be constitutional; but General Jackson, as 
President of the United States, disregarded the decision, 
and vetoed a bill for a re-charter, partly on constitu- 
tional ground, declaring that each public functionary 
must support the Constitution, "as he understands it," 
But hear the general's own words. Here they are, taken 
from his veto message: 

"It is maintained by the advocates of the bank, that its constitutionality 



THE MISSOURI COMPROMISE. 147 

in all its features, ought to be considered as settled by precedent, and by 
the decision of the Supreme Court. To this conclusion I can not assent. 
Mere precedent is a dangerous source of authority, and should not be re- 
garded as deciding questions of constitutional power, except where the ac- 
quiescence of the people and the States can be considered as well as 
settled. So far from this being the case on this subject, an argument 
against the bank might be based on precedent. One Congress in 1791, 
decided in favor of a bank; another in 181 1, decided against it. One 
Congress in 18 1 5 decided against a bank; another, in 18 16, decided in its 
favor. Prior to the present Congress, therefore, the precedents drawn 
from that source were equal. If we resort to the states, the expressions 
of legislative, *udicial, and executive opinions against the bank have been 
probably to those in its favor as four to one. There is nothing in prece- 
dent, therefore, which, if its authority we^e admitted, ought to weigh in 
favor of the act before me." 

I drop the quotation merely to remark, that all there 
ever was, in the way of precedent up to the Dred Scott 
decision, on the points therein decided, has been against 
that decision. But hear General Jackson further: 

"If the opinion of the Supreme Court covered the whole ground of this 
act, it ought not to control the co-ordinate authorities of this Government. 
The Congress, the executive, and the Court, must each for itseelf be 
guided by its own opinions of the Constitution. Each public officer, who 
takes an oath to support the Constitution, swears that he will support it 
as he understands it, and not as it is understood by others." 

Again and again have I heard Judge Douglas denounce 
that bank decision, and applaud General Jackson for dis- 
regarding it. It would be interesting for him to look over 
his recent speech, and see how exactly his fierce philip- 
ics against us, for resisting Supreme Court decisions, fall 
upon his own head. It will call to mind a long and 
fierce political war in this * country, upon an issue which, 
in his own language, and, of course, in his own change- 
less estimation, was ' 'a distinct issue between the friends 
and the enemies of the Constitution," and in which war 



14^' LINCOLN S SPEECHES COMPLETE. 

he fought In the. ranks of the enemies of the Constitu- 
tion. 

I have said, in substance, that the Dred Scott deci- 
sioil was, in part, based on assumed historical facts 
which were not really true, and I ought not to leave the 
subject without giving some reasons for saying this; I 
therefore give an instance or two, which 1 think fully 
sustain me. Chief Justice Taney, in delivering the 
opinion of the majority of the Court, insists at great 
length that negroes were no part of the people who made, 
or for whom was made, .the Declaration of Independence, 
or the Constitution of the United States. 

JUDGE CURTIS. 

On the contrary. Judge Curtis, in his dissenting opin- 
ion, shows that in five of the then thirteen states, to wit: 
New Hampshire, Massachusetts, New York, New Jersey, 
and North Carolina, free negroes were voters, and, in 
proportion to their numbers, had the same part in mak- 
ing the Constitution that the white people had. He 
shows this with so much particularity as to leave no 
doubt of its truth; and as a sort of conclusion on that 
point, holds the following language: 

"The Constitution was ordained and established by the people of the 
United States, through the action, in each state, of those persons who were 
qualified by its laws to act thereon in behalf of themselves and all other 
citizens of the state. In some of the states, as we have seen, colored per- 
sons were among these qualified by law to act on the subject. These 
colored persons were not only included in the body of "the United States, 
by whom the Constitution was ordained and established, but in at least 
five of the states, they had the power to act, and, doubtless, did act, by 
their suffrages, upon the question of its adoption." 
CHIEF JUSTICE TANEY. 

Again, Chief Justice Taney says: 



REPLY TO DOUGLAS. T49 

"It is difficult, at this day, to realize the state of public opinion in re- 
lation to that unfortunate race, which prevailed in the civilized and en- 
lightened portions of the world at the time of the Declaration of Inde- 
pendence, and when the Constitution of the United States was framed and 
adopted." 

And again, after quoting from the Declaration, he 
says: 

"The general words above quoted would seem to include the whole 
human family, and if they were used in a similar instrument at this day, 
would be so understood. 

In these the Chief Justice does not directly assert* 
but plainly assumes, as a fact, that the public estimate 
of the black man is more favorable now than it " was in 
the days of the Revolution. This assumption is a mis- 
take. In some trifling particulars, the condition of that 
race has been ameliorated; but as a whole, in this coun- 
try, the change between then and now is decidedly the 
other way; and their ultimate destiny has never ap- 
peared so hopeless as in the last three or four years. In 
two of the five states — New Jersey and North Carolina 
— that then gave the free negro the right of voting, the 
right has since been taken away; and in a third — New 
York — it has been greatly abridged; while it has not 
been extended, so far as I know, to a single additional 
state, though the number of the states has more than 
doubled. 

In those days, as I understand, masters could, at 
thdr own pleasure, emancipate their slaves; but since 
then, such legal restraints have been made upon emanci- 
pation, as to amount almost to prohibition. In those 
da3^s, Legislatures held the unquestioned power to abolish 
slavery in their respective states; but now it is becoming 
quite fashionable for State Constitutions to withhold 



Lincoln's speeches complete. 150 

that power from the Legislatures. In those days, by 
common consent, the spread of the black man's bondage 
to the new countries was prohibited, but now, Congress 
decides that it will not continue the prohibition; and the 
Supreme Court decides that it could not if it would. 

THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE. 

In those days, our Declaration of Independence was 
held sacred by all, and thought to include all; but now, 
to aid in making the bondage of the negro universal and 
eternal, it is assailed, and sneered at, and construed, and 
haw^ked at, and torn, till, if its framers could rise from 
their graves, they could not at all recognize it. All the 
powers of earth seem rapidly combining against him. 
Mammon is after him, ambition follows, philosophy 
follows, and the theology of the day is fast joining the 
cry. They have him in his prison house; they have 
searched his person, and left no prying instruments with 
him. One after another they have closed the heavy iron 
doors upon him; and now they have him, as it were, 
bolted in with a lock of a hundred keys, w'hich can never 
be unlocked v/ithout the concurrence of every key; the 
keys in the hands of a hundred different men. and they 
scattered to a hundred different and distant places; and 
they stand musing as to what invention, in all the do- 
minions of mind and matter, can be produced to make 
the impossibility of his escape more complete than it is. 

It is grossly incorrect to say or assume that the pub- 
lic estimate of the negro is more favorable now than it 
was at the orgin of the Government. 

Three years and a half ago, Judge Douglas brought 



REPLY TO DOUGLAS. I51 

forward his fanous Nebraska bill. The country was at 
once in a blaze. He scorned all opposition, and carried 
it through Congress. Since* then he has seen himself 
superceded in a Presidential nomination, by one indors- 
ing the general doctrine of his measure, but at the same 
time standing clear of the odium of its untimely agita- 
tion, and its gross breach of national faith; and he has 
seen that successful rival constitutionally elected, not by 
strength of friends, but by the division of adversaries, 
being in a popular minority of nearly four hundred 
thousand votes. He has seen his chief aids in his own 
state, Shields and Richardson, politically speaking, suc- 
cessively tried, convicted; and executed, for an offense 
not their own, but his. And now he sees his own case 
standing next on the docket for trial. 

There is a natural disgust in the minds of nearly all 
white people, to the idea of an indiscrimate amalgama- 
tion of the white and black races; and Judge Douglas 
evidently is basing his chief hope upon the chances of 
his being able to appropriate the benefit of this disgust 
to himself. If he can, by much drumming and repeat- 
ing, fasten the odium of that idea upon his adversaries, 
he thinks he can struggle through the storm. He there- 
fore clings to this hope, as a drowning man to the last 
plank. He makes an occasion for lugging it in from the 
opposition to the Dred Scott decision. He finds the 
Republicans insisting that the Declaration of Independ- 
ence includes all men, black as well as white, and 
forthwith he boldly denies that it includes negroes at all, 
and proceeds to argue gravely that all who contend it 
does do so only because they want to vote, and eat, and 



152 LINCOLN'S SPEECHES COMPLETE. 

sleep, and marry with negroes! He will have it that 
they can not be consistent else. Now I protest against 
the counterfeit logic which concludes that, because I 
do not want a black woman for a slave I must necessarily 
want her for a wife. I need not have her for either. I 
can just leave her alone. In some respects, she cer- 
tainly is not my equal; but in her natural right to eat the 
bread she earns with her own hands without asking leave 
of any one else, she is my equal, and the equal of all 
others. 

THE WHOLE HUMAN FAMILY. 

Chief Justice Taney, in his opinion in the Dred Scott 
case, admits that the language of the Declaration is broad 
enough to include the whole human family, but he and 
Judge Douglas argue that the authors of that instrument 
did not intend to include negroes, by the fact that they 
did not at once actually place them on an equality with 
the whites. Now this grave argument comes to just 
nothing at all, by the other fact, that they did not at 
once, or ever afterwards, actually place all white people 
on an equality with one another. And this is the staple 
argument of both the Chief Justice and the Senator, for 
doing this obvious violence to the plain, unmistakable 
language of the Declaration. 

I think the authors of that notable instrument intend- 
ed to include all men, but they did not intend to declare 
all men equal in all respects. They did not mean to say 
all were equal in color, size, intellect, moral develop- 
ments, or social capacity. They defined with tolerable 
distinctness, in what respects they did consider all men 
created equal — equal with ' 'certain inalienable rights, 



REPLY TO DOUGLAS. I 53 

among which are life, Hberty, and the pursuit of happi- 
ness." This they said, and this they meant. They did 
not mean to assert the obvious untruth, that all were 
then actually enjoying that equality, nor yet that they 
were about to confer it immediately upon them. In fact, 
they had no power to confer such a boon. They meant 
simply to declare the right, so that the enforcement of it 
might follow as fast as circumstances should permit. 

<*ALL MEN ARE CREATED EQUAL." 

They meant to set np a standard maxim for free socie- 
ty, which should be familiar to all, and revered by all; 
constantly looked to, constantly labored for, and even 
though never perfectly attained, constantly approxima- 
ted, and thereby constantly spreading and deepening its 
influence and augmenting the happiness and value of life 
to all people of all colors everywhere. The assertion 
that ^'all men are created equal," was of no practical 
use in effecting our separation from Great Britain; and it 
was placed in the Declaration, not for that but for future 
use. Its authors meant it to be as, thank God, it is now 
proving itself, a stumbling-block to all those who, in 
after times, might seek to turn a free people back into 
the hateful paths of despotism. They knew the prone- 
ness of prosperity to breed tyrants, and they meant when 
such should reappear in this fair land and commence 
their vocation, they should find left for them at least one 
hard nut to crack. 

I have now briefly expressed my view of the meaning 
and object of that part of the Declaration of Independ- 
ence which declares that ''all men are created equal." 

Now let us hear Judge Douglas's view of the same 



154 LINCOLN S SPEECHES COMPLETE. 

subject, as I find it in the printed report of his late 
speech. Here it is: 

"No man can vindicate the character, motives, and conduct of the 
signers of the Declaration of Independence, except upon the hypothesis 
that they referred to the white race alone, and not to the African, when 
they declared all men to have been created equal — that they were speaking 
of British subjects on this continent being equal to British subjects born 
and resid-ng in Great Britain — that they were entitled to the same inalien- 
able rights, and among them were enumerated life, liberty, and the pur- 
suit of happiness. The Declaration was adopted for the purpose of 
justifying the colonists in the eyes of the civilized world in withdrawing 
their allegiance from the British crown and dissolving their connection 
with the mother country." 

FIRING SOLID SHOT AT DOUGLAS. 

My good friends, read that carefully over some leisure 
hour, and ponder well upon it — see what a mere wreck 
— mangled ruin, it makes of our once glorious Declara- 
tion. 

"They were speaking of British subjects on this con- 
tinent being equal to British subjects born and residing 
in Great Britain!" Why, according to this, not only 
negroes, but white people outside of Great Britain and 
America were not spoken of in that instrument. The 
English, Irish, and Scotch, along with white Americans, 
were included to be sure, but the French, Germans, and 
other white people of the world are all gone to plot along 
with the judge's inferior races. 

I had thought the Declaration promised something 
. better than the condition of British subjects; but no, it 
only meant that we should be equal to them in their own 
oppressed and unequal condition. According to that, it 
gave no promise that, having kicked off the king and 
lords of Great Britain, we should not at once be saddled 



REPLY TO DOUGLAS. I 5 5 

with a king and lords of our own in these United States. 

I had thought the Declaration contemplated the pro- 
gressive improvement in the condition of all men every- 
where; but no, it merely "was adopted for the purpose 
of justifying the colonists in the eyes of the civilized 
world in withdrawing their allegiance from the British 
crown, and dissolving their connection with the mother 
country." Why, that object having been effected some 
eighty years ago, the Declaration is of no practical use 
now — mere rubbish — old wadding left to rot on the bat- 
tle-field after the victory is won. 

I understand you are preparing to celebrate the 
''Fourth" to-morrow week. What for.? The doings of 
that day had no reference to the present; and quite half 
of you are not even descendants of those who were re- 
ferred to at that da}^ But I suppose you will celebrate; 
and will even go so far as to read the Declaration. Sup- 
pose, after you read it once in the old fashioned way, you 
read it once more with Judge Douglas's version. It will 
then run thus: "We hold these truths to be self-evident 
that all British subjects who were on this continent 
eighty-one years ago, were created equal to all British 
subjects born and then residing in Great Britain." 

And now I appeal to all — to Democrats as well as 
others — are you really willing that the Declaration shall 
thus be frittered away.? — thus left no more at most than 
an interesting memorial of the dead past.? — thus shorn 
of its vitality and practical value, and left without the 
germ or even the suggestion of the individual rights of 
rpan in it.? 

But Judge Douglas is especially horrified at the thought 



I5p LINCOLN'S SPEECHES COMPLETE. 

of the mixing blood by the white and black races. 
Agreed-for once — a thousand times agreed. There are 
white men enough to marry all the white women, and 
black men enough to marry all the black women and so 
let them be married. On this point, we fully agree with 
the judge; and when he shall show that his policy is 
better adapted to prevent amalgamation than ours, we 
shall drop ours and adopt his. Let us see. In 1850, 
there were in the United States, 405,751 mulattoes. 
Very few of these are the offspring of white; and free 
blacks; nearly all have sprung from black slaves and white 
masters. 

A separation of the races is the only perfect preventive 
of amalgamation, bnt as an immediate separation is im- 
possible, the next best thing is to keep them apart where 
they are not already together. If white and black people 
never get together in Kansas, they will never mix blood 
in Kansas. That is at least one self evident truth. A 
few free colored persons may get into the free states, in 
any event; but their number is too insignificant to amount 
to much in the way of mixing blood. 

SOME FIGURES. 

In 1850, there were in the free states, 56,649 mulattoes; 
but for the most part they were not born there — they 
came from the slave states, ready made up. In the 
same year the slave states had 348, 874 mulattoes, all of 
home production. The proportion of free mulattoes to 
free blacks — the only colored classes in the free states — 
is much greater in the slave than in the free states. It 
is worthy of note, too, that among the free states, those 
which make the colored man the nearest equal to the 



kEPLY TO DOUGLAS. 1^7 

white, have proportionally the fewest mulattoes, the 
least of amalgamation. In New Hampshire, the state 
which goes farthest toward equality between the races, 
there are just 184 mulattoes, while there are in Virginia 
— how many do you think? — 79,775, being 23, 126 more 
than in the free states together. 

These statistics show that slavery is the greatest source 
of amalgamation, and next to it, not the elevation, but 
the degradation of free blacks. Yet Judge Douglas 
dreads the slightest restraints on the spread of slavery^ 
and the slightest human recognition of the negro, as 
tending horribly to amalgamation. 

ANOTHER SHOT. 

The very Dred Scott case affords a strong test as to 
which party most favors amalgamation, the Republicans 
or the dear Union-saving Democracy. Dred Scott, his 
wife, and two daughters were all involved in the suit. We 
desired the court to have held that they were citizens so 
far at least to entitle them to a hearing as to whether 
they were free or not; and then, also, that they were in 
fact and in law really free. Could we have had our way, 
the chances of these black girls ever mixing their blood 
with that of white people, would have been diminished 
at least to the extent that it could not have been without 
their consent. But Judge Douglas is delighted to have 
them decided to be slaves, and not human enough to 
have a hearing, even if they were free, and thus left 
subject to the forced concubinage of their masters, and 
liable to become the mother of mulattoes in spite of 
themselves, the very state of case that produces nine-tenths 
of all the mulattoes, all the mixing of blood in the nation. 



158 Lincoln's speeches complete. 

Of course, I state this case as an illustration only, not 
meaning to say or intimate that the master of Dred Scott 
and his family, or any more than a percentage of mas- 
ters generally, are inclined to exercise this particular 
power which they hold over their female slaves. 

I have said that the separation of the races is the only 
perfect preventive of amalgamation. I have no right to 
say all the members of the Republican party are in favor 
of this, nor to say that as a party they are in favor of it. 
There is nothing in their platform directly on the sub- 
ject. But I can say, a very large proportion of its mem- 
bers are for it, and that the chief plank in their platform 
— opposition to the spread of slavery — is most favorable 
to that separation. 

ADVISABILITY OF COLONIZATION. 

Such separation, if ever effected at all, must be effected 
by colonization; and no political party, as such, is now 
doing anything directly for colonization. Party opera- 
tions, at present, only favor or retard colonization inci- 
dentally. The enterprise is a difficult one; but "where 
there is a will there is a way;" and what colonization 
needs most is a hearty will. Will springs from the two 
elements of moral sense and self-interest. Let us be 
brought to believe it is morally right, and, at the same 
time, favorable to, or, at least, not against, our interest, 
to transfer the African to his native clime, and we shall 
find a way to do it, however great the task may be. 
The children of Israel, to such numbers as to include 
four hundred thousand fighting men, went out of Egyp- 
tian bondage in a body. 

How differently the respective courses of the Demo- 



REPLY TO DOUGLAS. 1 59 

cratic and Republican parties incidentally bear on the 
question of forming a will — a public sentiment — for col- 
onization is easy to see. The Republicans inculcate, 
with whatever of ability they can, that the negro is a 
man; that his bondage is cruelly wrong, and that the 
field of his oppression ought not to be enlarged. The 
Democrats deny his manhood; deny, or dwarf to insignif- 
icance, the wrong of his bondage; so far as possible, 
crush all sympathy for him, and cultivate and excite 
hatred and disgust against hfm; compliment themselves 
as Union-savers for doing so; and call the indefinite out- 
spreading of his bondage '*a sacred right of self-govern- 
ment. 

A GOLD EAGLE NOT TRANSLUCENT. 

The plainest print cannot be read through a gold eagle; 
and it will ever be hard to find many men who will send 
a slave to Liberia, and pay his passage, while they can 
send them to a new country — Kansas for instance — and 
sell him for fifteen hundred dollars, and the rise. 




LINCOLN "LINKED TO TRUTH. " 

[spoken in the Library of the State House at Springfield, Illinois, to a few 
friends who wanted the sentence "A house divided against itself cannot 
stand, " expunged from the great speech known now as the "House Div- 
vided Against Itself Speech." Lincoln had submitted the manuscript for 
their criticism before the great speech was delivered] 

Friends: — I have thought about this matter a great deal, 
have weighed the question well from all corners, and am 
thoroughly convinced the time has come when it should 
be uttered; and if it must be that I must go down because 
of this speech, then let me go down linked to truth, die 
in the advocacy of what is right and just. This nation 
cannot live on injustice. ''A house divided against itself 
cannot stand," I say again and again; the proposition is 
true and has been true for six thousand years, and I will 
deliver it as it is written. 

[This celebrated speech is given in full, commencing 
on the following page. It should be stated that before 
going to the Hall of Representatives, where it was de- 
livered, Mr. Lincoln turned aside and entered his law of- 
fice, where Mr. Herndon, his partner, was sitting, and 
turned the key against all intrusion. Taking out his 
manuscript he read to Mr. Herndon the first paragraph 
of his speech, and asked him for his opinion of it. Mr. 
Herndon replied that it was all true, but he doubted 
whether it was good policy to give it utterance at that 
time. "That makes no difference," responded Mr. Lin- 
coln. "It is the truth, and the nation is entitled to it." 
Then, alluding to a quotation which he had made from 
the Bible — "A house divided against itself cannot stand,'' 
he said that he wished to give an illustration familiar to 

all, "that he who runs may read."] 

(i6o) 



LINCOLN'S FIRST SPEECH IN THE SENATORIAL 
CAMPAIGN 
-THE HOUSE DIVIDED AGAINST ITSELF 
SPEECH." 

(Delivered at Springfield 111. June i6. 1858 Before the Republican 
State Convention. It is known as one of Lincoln's greatest speeches.) 

Gentlemen of the Convention; — "If we could 
first know where we are, and whither we are 
tending, we could better judge what to do, and 
how to do it. We are now far into the fifth year, since 
a policy was initiated with the avowed object and con^ 
fident promise of putting an end to slavery agitation. 
Under the operation of that policy, that agitation has 
not only ceased, but has constantly augmented. In 
my opinion, it will not cease, until a crisis shall have 
been reached and passed. ' 'A house divided against itself 
cannot stand." I believe this government cannot endure 
permanently half slave and half free. I do not expect the 
Union to be dissolved — I do not expect the house to fall 
—but I do expect it will cease to be divided. It will 
become all one thing, or all the other. Either the op- 
ponents of slavery will arrest the further spread of it, and 
place it where the public mind shall rest in the belief 
that it is in the course of ultimate extinction; or its ad- 
vocates will push it forward, till it shall become alike 

[161] 



1 62 Lincoln's speeches coMPLEtE. 

lawful in all the states, old as well as new — North as 
well as South. 

"Have we no tendency to the latter condition? 

"Let anyone who doubts, carefully contemplate that 
now almost complete legal combination — piece of ma- 
chinery, so to speak — compounded of the Nebraska doc- 
trine, and the Dred Scott decision. Let him consider 
not only what work the machinery is adapted to do, and 
how well adapted; but also let him study the history of 
its construction, and trace, if he can, or rather fail, if he 
can, to trace the evidences of design and concert of action 
among its chief architects, from the beginning. 

A FEW^ IMPORTANT FACTS. 

"The new year of 1844 found slavery excluded from 
more than half the states by State Constitutions, and 
from most of the national territory by Congressional pro- 
hibition. Four days later, commenced the struggle which 
ended in repealing that Congressional prohibition. This 
opened all the national territory to slavery, and was the 
first point gained. 

"But, so far, Congress had acted; and an indorsement 
by the people, real or apparent, was indispensable, to save 
the point already gained, and give chance for more. 

"This necessity had not been overlooked; but had been 
provided for, as well as might be, in the notable argu- 
ment of 'squatter sovereignty,' otherwise called 'sacred 
right of self-government,' which latter phrase, though 
expressive of the only rightful basis of any government, 
was so perverted in this attempted use of it as to amount 
to just this: That if any one man choose to enslave an- 
other, no third man shall be allowed to object. That 



THE SENATORIAL CAMPAIGN. j5, 

argument was incorporated into the Nebraska bill itself 
m the language which follows: -It being the true intent 
and meaning of this act not to legislate slavery into any 
territory or state, nor to exclude it therefrom; but to leave 
he people thereof perfectly free to form and regulate 
heir domestic institutions in their own way, subject only 
to the Constitution of the United States.' Then opened 
the roar of loose declamation in favor of 'squatter sover- 
eignty, and 'sacred right of self-government ' 'But ' said 
opposition members, 'let us amend the bill so as to ex 
pressly declare that the people of the territory may ex- 
clude slavery. • 'Not we, ' said the friends of the measure- 
and down they voted the amendment. 

"While the Nebraska bill was passing through Con- 
gress, a law case involving the question of a negro's free- 
dom, by reason of his owner having voluntarily taken him 
first into a free state and then into a territory covered by 
he Congressional prohibition, and held him as a' slave 
for along time in each, was passing through the United 
States Circuit Court for the district of Missouri; and both 
Nebraska bill and lawsuit were brought to a decision in 
the same month of May, ,854. The negro's name was 
Dred Scott, which name now designates the decision 
fina !y made in the case. Before the then next presi- 
dental election, the law case came to, and was argued in 
the Supreme Court of the United States, but the decision' 
ot It was deferred until after the election. Still, before 
the election, Senator Trumbull, on the floor of the Senate 
requested the leading advocate of the Nebraska bill to 
state his opinion whether the people of a territory can 
constitutionally exclude slavery from their limits; and the 



1 64 Lincoln's speeches complete. 

latter answers: 'That is a question for the Supreme 
Court.' 

'The election came. Mr. Buchanan was elected, and 
the indorsement, such as it was, secured. That was the 
second point gained. The indorsement, however, fell 
short of a clear popular majority by nearly four hundred 
thousand votes, and so, perhaps, was not overwhelmingly 
reliable and satisfactory. The outgoing President, in his 
last annual message, as impressively as possible echoed 
back upon the people the weight and authority of the in- 
dorsement. The Supreme Court met again; did not an- 
nounce their decision, but ordered a re-argument. The 
presidential inauguration came, and still no decision of 
the court; but the incoming President in his inaugural 
address fervently exhorted the people to abide by the 
forthcoming decision, whatever it might be. Then, in a 
few days, came the decision. 

"The reputed author of the Nebraska bill finds an 
early occasion to make a speech at this capital indorsing 
the Dred Scott decision, and vehemently denouncing all 
opposition to it. The new President, too, seizes the 
early occasion of the Silliman letter to indorse and 
strongly construe that decision, and to express his aston- 
ishment that any different view has ever been entertained! 

VOTING IT UP OR VOTING IT DOWN. 

' 'At length a squabble springs up between the President 
and the author of the Nebraska bill, on the mere question 
of fact, whether the Lecompton Constitution was or was 
not, in any just sense, made by the people of Kansas; 
and in that quarrel the latter declares that all he wants 
is a fair vote for the people and that he cares not whether 



THE SENATORIAL CAMPAIGN. 165 

slavery be voted down or voted up. I do not understand 
his declaration that he cares not whether slavery be voted 
down or voted up to be intended by him other than an 
apt definition of the policy he would impress upon the 
public mind— the principle for which he declares he has 
suffered so much, and is ready to suffer to the end. And 
well may he cling to that principle. If he has any parent- 
al feelings, well may he cling to it. That principle is the 
only shred left of his original Nebraska doctrine. Under 
the Dred Scott decision squatter sovereignty squatted out 
of existence, tumbled down like temporary scaffolding- 
like the mould at the foundry, served through one blast 
and fell back into loose sand— helped to carry an election 
and then was kicked to the winds. His late joint struggle 
with the republicans, against the Lecompton Constitution, 
involves nothing of the original Nebraska doctrine. That 
struggle was made on a point— the right of a people to 
make their own constitution — upon which he and the re- 
publicans have never differed. 

"The several points of the Dred Scott decision, in 
connection with Senator Douglas' 'care not' policy, con- 
stitute the piece of machinery, in its present state of ad- 
vancement. This was the third point gained. 

WORKING POINTS. 

The working points of that machinery are: 

"First, That no negro slave, imported as such from 
Africa, and no descendant of such slave, can ever be a 
citizen of any state, in the sense of that term as used in 
the Constitution of the United States. This point is 
made in order to deprive the negro, in every possible 
event, of the benefit of that provision of the United 



iGG LINCOLN S SPEECHES COMPLETE. 

States Constitution, which declares that 'The citizens of 
each state shall be entitled to all privileges and immuni- 
ties of citizens in the several states.' 

"Secondly, That 'subject to the Constitution of the 
United States,' neither. Congress nor a territorial legis- 
lature can exclude slavery from any United States terri- 
tory. This point is made in order that individual men 
may fill up the territories with slaves, without danger of 
losing them as property, and thus to enhance the chances 
of permanency to the institution through all the future. 

"Thirdly, That whether the holding the negro in 
actual slavery in a free state, makes him free, as against 
the holder, the United States courts will not decide, but 
will leave to be decided by the courts of any slave state 
the negro may be forced into by the master. This point 
is made, not to be pressed immediately; but, if acquiesced 
in for a while, and apparently indorsed by the people at 
an election, then to sustain the logical conclusion that 
what Dred Scott't master might lawfully do with Dred 
Scott, in the free state of Illinois, every other master 
may lawfully do with any other one, or one thousand 
slaves, or in any other free state. 

"Auxiliary to all this, and working hand in hand with 
it, the Nebraska doctrine, or what isleftof it, is to educate 
and mould public opinion, at least northern public opinion, 
not to care whether slavery is voted down or voted up. 
This shows exactly where we now are; and partially, 
also, whither we are tending. 

A STRING OF HISTORICAL FACTS. 

"It will throw additional light on the latter, to go back 
and run the mind over the string of historical facts al- 



15/ THE SENATORIAL CAMPAIGN. 

ready stated. Several things will now appear less dark 
and mysterious than theydid when they were transpiring. 
The people were to be left 'perfectly free,' subject only 
to the Constitution.' What the Constitution had to do 
with it, outsiders could not then see. Plainly enough 
now, it was an exactly fitted niche, for the Dred Scott 
decision to afterward come in, and declare the perfect 
freedom of the people to be just no freedom at all. Why 
was the amendment, expressly declaring the right of the 
people voted down.? Plain enough now: the adoption of 
it would have spoiled the niche for the Dred Scott de- 
cision. Why was the court decision held up.? Why 
even a senator's individual opinion withheld, till after 
the presidential election.? Plainly enough now: the 
speaking out then would have damaged the perfectly free 
argument upon which the election was to be carried. 
Why the out-going President's felicitation on the indorse- 
ment.? Why the delay of a re-argument.? Why the in- 
coming President's advance exhortation in favor of the 
decision.? These things look like the cautious patting 
and petting of a spirited horse preparatory to mounting 
him, when it is dreaded that he may give the rider a fall. 
And why the hasty after-indorsement of the decision by 
the President and others.? 

'* We cannot absolutely know that all these exact 
adaptations are the result of preconcert. But when we 
see a lot of framed timbers, different portions of which 
we know have been gotten out at different times and 
places and by different workmen — Stephen, Franklin, 
Roger and James, for instance — and when we see these 
timbers joined together, and see they exactly make the 



Lincoln's speeches complete. 168 

frame of a house or a mill, all the tenons and mortices ' 
exactly adapted, and all the lengths and proportions of 
the different pieces exactly adapted to their respective 
places, and not a piece too many or too few — not omit- 
ting even scaffolding — or, if a single piece be lacking, we 
see the place in the frame exactly fitted and prepared yet 
to bring such a piece in — in such a case, we find it im- 
possible not to believe that Stephen and Franklin and 
Roger and James all understood one another from the 
beginning, and all worked upon a common plan or draft 
drawn up before the first blow was struck. 

POWER OF A STATE. 

' ' It should not be overlooked that, by the Nebraska 
bill, the people of a state as well as territory, were to be 
left 'perfectly free,' subject only to the Constitution.' 
Why mention a state.? They were legislating for territo- 
ries, and not for or about states. Certainly the people 
of a state are or ought to be subject to the Constitution 
of the United States; but why is mention of this lugged 
into this merely territorial law.^* Why are the people of 
a territory and the people of a state therein lumped to- 
gether, and their relation to the Constitution therein 
treated as being precisely the same? While the opinions 
of the court, by Chief Justice Taney, in the Dred Scott 
case, and the seperate opinions of all the concurring 
judges, expressly declare that the Constitution of the 
United States neither permits Congress nor a territorial 
legislature to exclude slavery from any United States ter- 
ritory, they all omit to declare whether or not the same 
Constitution permits a state, or the people of a state, to 
exclude it. Possibly, this is a mere omission; but who 



1 69 THE SENATORIAL CAMPAIGN. 

can be quite sure, if Mc Lean or Curtis had songht to get 
into the opinion a declaration of unHmited power in the 
people of a state to exclude slavery from their limits, just 
as Chase and Mace sought to get such declaration, in be- 
half of the people of a territory, into the Nebraska bill; — 
I ask, who can be quite sure that it would not have been 
voted down in the one case as it had been in the other. 

The nearest approach to the point of declaring the 
power of a state over slavery, is made by Judge Nelson. 
He approaches it more than once, using the precise idea, 
and almost the language, too, of the Nebraska act. On 
one occasion his exact language is, ' except in cases 
where the power is restrained by the Constitution of the 
United States, the law of the state is supreme over the 
subject of slavery within its jurisdiction.' In what cases 
the power of the states is so restrained by the United 
States Constitution, is left an open question, precisely as 
the same question as to the restraint on the power of the 
territories was left open in the Nebraska act. Put this 
and that together, and we have another nice little niche, 
which we may, ere long, see filled with another Supreme 
Court decision, declaring that the Constitution of the 
United States does not permit a state to exclude Slavery 
from its limits. And this may especially be expected if 
the doctrine of 'care not whether slavery be voted down 
or voted up,' sball gain upon the public mind sufficiently 
to give promise that such a decision can be maintained 
when made. 

'' Such a decision is all that slavery now lacks of being 
alike lawful in all the states. Welcome, or unwelcome 
such decision is probably coming, and will soon be up- 



170 LINCOLN'S SPEECHES COMPLETE. 

on US, unless the power of the present pohtical dynasty 
shall be met and^overthrown. We shall lie down pleas- 
antly dreaming that the people of Missouri are on the 
very verge of making their state free, and we shall awake 
to the reality instead, that the Supreme Court has made 
Illinois a slave state. To meet and overthrow the power 
of that dynasty, is the work now before all those who 
would prevent that consummation. That is what we have 
to do. How can we best do it.^ 

' 'A LIVING DOG IS BETTER THAN A DEAD LION. " 

' 'There are those who denounce us openly to their 
friends, and yet whisper us softly that Senator Douglas is 
the aptest instrument there is with which to effect that 
object. They wish us to infer all, from the fact that he 
now has a little quarrel with the present head of the dy- 
nasty; and that he has regularly voted with us on a single 
point, upon which he and we have never differed. They 
remind us that he is a great man, and that the largest of 
us are very small ones. Let this be granted. But ' a 
living dog is better than a dead lion.' Judge Douglas, if 
not a dead lion, for this work, is at least a caged and 
toothless one. How can he oppose the advances of sla- 
very.-* He don't care anything about it. His avowed 
mission is impressing the 'public heart' to care nothing 
about it. A leading Douglas democratic newspaper 
thinks Douglas' superior talent will be rfeeded to resist 
the revival of the African slave trade. Does Douglas be- 
lieve an effort to revive that trade is approaching.^ He 
has not said so. Does he really think so.-^ But if it is, 
how can he resist it.^^ For years he has labored to prove 
it a sacred right of white men to take negro slaves into 



J 71 THE SENATORIAL CAMPAIGN. 

the new territories. Can he possibly show that it is less 
a sacred right to buy them where they can be bought the 
cheapest.^ And unquestionably they can be bought cheap- 
er in Africa than Virginia. He has done all in his power 
to reduce the whole question of slavery to one of a mere 
right of property; and as such, how can he oppose the 
foreign slave trade — how can he refuse that trade in that 
'property' shall be 'perfectly free' — unless he does it as a 
protection to the home production.? And as the home 
producers will probably not ask the protection, he will 
be wholly without a ground of opposition. 

DOUGLAS IS NOT WTTH US. 

< 'Senator Douglas holds, we know, that a man may 
rightfully be wiser to-day than he was yesterday — that he 
may rightfully change when he finds himself wrong. But 
can we, for that reason, run ahead, aud infer that he will 
make any particular change of which he himself has giv- 
en no intimation.? Can we safely base our action upon 
any such vague inference.? Now, as ever, I wish not to 
misrepresent Judge Douglas' position, question his mo- 
tives, or do aught that can be personally offensive to him. 
Whenever, if ever, he and we can come together on prin- 
ciple so that our cause may have assistance from his great 
ability, I hope to have interposed no adventitious obstacle^ 
But clearly, he is not now with us — he does not pretend 
to be — he does not pretend ever to be. 

BUT WE SHALL NOT FAIL; THE VICTORY IS SURE. 

Our cause, then, must be intrusted to, and conducted 
by, its own undoubted friends — those whose hands are 
free, whose hearts are in the work — who do care for the 
result. Two years ago the Republicans of the nation 



172 LINCOLN S SPEECHES COMPLETE. 

mustered over thirteen thousand strong. We did this 
under the single impulse of resistance to a common dan- 
ger, with every external circumstances against us. Of 
strange, discordant, and even hostile elements, we gath- 
ered from the four winds, and formed and fought the bat- 
tle through, under the constant hot fire of a diciplined, 
proud and pampered enemy. Did we brave all then, to 
falter nowi^ — now, when that same enemy is wavering, 
dissevered and belligerent.? — The result is not doubtful- 
We shall not fail — if we stand firm, we shall not fail. 
Wise counsels may accelerate, or mistakes delay it, but, 
sooner or later, the victory is sure to come. " 




MR. LINCOLN'S REPLY TO DOUGLAS. 

(Delivered at Chicago , on the evening of July, lo, 1858.) 

My Fellow-Citizens; On yesterday evening, upon 
the occasion of [the reception given to Senator Douglas, 
I was furnished with a seat very convenient for hearing 
him, and was otherwise very courteously treated by him 
and his friends, for which I thank him and them. Dur- 
ing the course of his remarks my name was mentioned 
in such a way as, I suppose, renders it at least not im- 
proper that I should make some sort of reply to him, I 
shall not attempt to follow him in the precise order in 
which he addressed the assembled multitude upon that 
occasion, though I shall perhaps do so in the main. 

THE ALLEGED ALLLANCE. 

There was one question to which he asked the atten- 
tion of the crowd, which I deem of somewhat less impor- 
tance — at least of propriety for me to dwell upon — than 
the others, which he brought in near the close of his 
speech, and which I think it would not be entirely proper 
for me to omit attending to, and yet if I were not to give 
some attention to it now, I should probably forget it al- 
together. While I am upon this subject, allow me to 
say that I do not intend to indulge in inconvenient modes 
sometimes adopted in public speaking, of reading from 
documents; but I shall depart from that rule so far as to 

[173] 



174 Lincoln's speeches complete. 

read a little scrap from his speech, which notices this 
first topic of which I speak — that is, provided I can find it 
in the paper. [Examines the morning's paper, and reads:] 

'' I have made up my mind to appeal to the people 
against the combination that has been made against me! 
the Republican leaders having formed an alliance, an un- 
holy and unnatural alliance with a portion of unscrupu- 
lous federal office-holders. I intend to fight that allied 
army wherever I meet them. I know they deny the al- 
liance, but yet these men who are trying to divide the 
Democratic party for the purpose of electing a Republi- 
can Senator in my place, are just as much the agents 
and tools of the supporters of Mr. Lincoln. Hence I 
shall deal with this allied army just as the Russians deal 
with the allies at Sebastopol — that is, the Russians did 
not stop to inquire when they fired a broadside, whether 
it hit an Englishman, a Frenchman or a Turk. Nor 
will I stop to enquire, nor shall I hesitate, whether my 
blows shall hit these Republican leaders or their allies^ 
who are holding the federal offices and yet acting in con- 
cert with them." 

Well, now, gentlemen, is not that very alarming.? 
Just to think of it! right at the outset of his canvass, I a 
poor, kind, amiable, intelligent gentleman, I am to be 
slain in this way. Why, my friends, the Judge, is not 
only, as it turns out, not a dead lion, nor even a living 
one — he is the rugged Russian Bear! [Laughter and 
applause.] 

But if they will have it — for he says that we deny it — 
that there is any alliance, as he says there is — and I don't 
propose hanging very much upon this question of veracity 



175 'THE SENATORIAL CAMPArCN. 

• — but if he will have it that there is such an alliance— 
that the Administration men and we are allied, and we 
stand in the attitude of English, French, and Turk, he 
occupying the position of the Russian, in that case, I 
beg that he will indulge us while we barely suggest to him 
that these allies took Sebastopol. [Great aplause.] 

Gentlemen, only a few more words as to this alliance. 
For my part, I have to say, that whether there be such 
an alliance, depends, so far as I know, upon what may 
be a right definition of the term alliance, If for the Re- 
publican party to see the other great party to w^hich they 
are opposed divided among ^themselves, and not try to 
stop the division and rather be glad of it — if that is an 
alliance, I confess I am in; but if it is meant to be said 
that the Republicans had formed an alliance going be- 
yond that, by which there is contribution of money or 
sacrifice of principle on the one side or other, so far as 
the Republican party is concerned, if there be any such 
thing, I protest that I neither know any thing of it, nor 
do I believe it. I will, however, say — as I think this 
branch of the argument is lugged in — I would before I 
leave it, state, for the benefit of those concerned, that 
one of those same Buchanan men did once tell me of an 
argument that he made for his opposition to Judge Doug- 
las. He said that a friend of our Senator Douglas had 
been talking to him, and had among other things said to 
him: *'Why, you don't want to beat Douglas.^"" "Yes," 
said he. "I do want to beat him, and I will tell you 
why. I believe his original Nebraska Bill was right in 
the abstract, but it was wrong in the time that it was 
brought forward. It was wrong in the application to a 



176 LINCOLN S SPEECHES COMPLETE. 

Territory in regard to which the question had been settled; 
it was tendered to the South when the South had not 
asked for it, but when they could not refuse it. 
And for this same reason he forced that question upon our 
party; it has sunk the best men all over the nation, every- 
where; and now when our President, struggling with the 
difficulties of this man's getting up, has reached the very 
hardest point to turn in the case, he deserts him, and I 
am for putting him where he will trouble us no more. 
Now, gentlemen, that is not my argument at all. I 
have only been stating to you the argument of a Buchan- 
an man. You will judge if there is any force in it. 

WHAT IS POPULAR SOVEREIGNTY. 

Popular sovereignty! everlasting popular sovereignty 
Let us for a moment inquire into the vast matter of popu- 
lar sovereignty. What is popular sovereignty.? We re- 
collect that in an early period in the history of this strug- 
gle, there was another name for the same thing — Squat- 
ter Sovereignty. It was not exactly Popular Sovereignty 
but Squatter Sovereignty. What do those terms mean.? 
What do those terms mean when used now.? And vast 
credit is taken by our friend, the judge, in regard to his 
support to it, when he declares the last years of his life 
have been and all the future years shall be, devoted to 
this matter of popular sovereignty. What is it.? Why 
it is the sovereignty of the people! What was Squatter 
Sovereignty.? I suppose if it had any significance at all 
it was the right of the people to govern themselves, to be 
soverign in their own affairs while they had squatted 
on a Territory that did not belong to them, in the sense 
that a State belongs to the people who inhabit it — when 



THE SENATORIAL CAMPAIGN. I 77 

it belonged to the nation — such right to govern them- 
selves was called ''Squatter Sovereignty." 

Nov^ I wish you to mark. What has become of that 
Squatter Sovereignty? What has become of it.? Can 
you get any body to tell you now that the people of a 
Territory have any authority to govern themselves, in re- 
gard th this mooted question of slavery, before they form 
a State Constitution.? No such thing at all, although 
there is a general running fire, and although there has 
been a hurrah made in every speech on that side, assum- 
ing that policy had given the people of a Territory the 
right to govern themselves upon this question; yet the 
point is dodged. To-day it has been decided — no more 
than a year ago it had been decided by the Supreme 
court of the United States, and is insisted upon to-day, 
that the people of a Territory have no right to exclude 
slavery from a Territory, that if any one man chooses to 
take slaves into a Territory, all the rest of the people 
have no right to keep them out. This being so, and this 
decision being made one of the points that the judge ap- 
proved, and one in the approval of which he says he 
means to keep me down — put me down I should not say 
for I have never been up, he says he is in favor of it, 
and sticks to it and expects to win his battle on that de- 
cision, which says there is no such thing as Squatter 
Sovereignty; but that anyone man may take slaves into 
a Territory, and all the men may be opposed to it, and 
yet by reason of the Constitution they cannot prohibit 
it. When that is so, how much is left of this matter of 
Squatter Sovereignty I should like to know.? [a voice 
*'It is all gone."] 



17S llncoln's speeches complete. 

When we get back, we get to the point of the right of 
the people to make a Constitution. Kansas was settled, 
for example, in 1854. It was a Territory yet, without 
having formed a Constitution, in a very regular way, for 
three years. All this time negro slavery could be taken 
in by any few individuals, and by that decision of the 
Supreme Court, which the judges approves, all the rest 
of the people cannot keep it out; but when they come to 
make a Constitution they may say they will not have 
slavery. But it is there; they are obliged to tolerate it 
some way, and all experience shows it will be so — for 
they will not take negro slaves and absolutely deprive 
the owners of them. All experience shows this to be so. 
All that space of time that runs from the beginning of 
the settlement of the Territory until there is sufficiency 
of people to make a State Constitution — all that portion 
of time popular sovereignty is given up. The seal is 
absolutely put down upon it by the Court decision, and 
Judge Douglas puts his on the top of that, yet he is ap- 
pealing to the people to give him vast credit for his de- 
votion to popular sovereignty. [Applause.] 

Again, when we get to the question of the right of people 
to form a State Constitution as they please, to form with 
slavery or without slavery — if that is anything new, I 
confess I don't know it. Has there ever been a time 
when anybody said that any other than the people of a 
Territory itself should form a Constitution. ^^ What is 
now in it that Judge Douglas should have fought several 
years of his life, and pledge himself to light all the re- 
maining years of his life for.^^ Can Judge Douglas find 
anybody on earth that said that anybody else should 



TliE SENATORIAL CAMPAIGN. I 79 

form a Constitution for a people? [A voice, "yes."] 
Well, I should like you to name him; I should like to 
know who he was [same voice, "John Calhoun."] 

Mr, Lincoln — No, Sir, I never heard of even John Cal- 
houn saying such a thing. He insisted on the same prin- 
ciple as Judge Douglas; but his mode of applying it in 
fact, was wrong. It is enough for my purpose to ask this 
crowd, when ever a Republican said anything against it.^ 
They never said anything against it, but they have con- 
stantly • spoken for it; and whosoever will undertake to 
examine the platform, and the speeches of responsible 
men of the party, and of irresponsible men, too, if you 
please, will be unable to find one word from any body 
in the Republican ranks, opposed to that Popular Sov- 
ereignty which Judge Douglas thinks that he has invent- 
ed. [Aplause.] I suppose that Judge Douglas will claim 
in a little while, that he is the inventor of the idea that 
the people should govern themselves; that no body ever 
thought of such a thing until he brought it forward. We 
do remember, that in the old Declaration of Independence, 
it is said that "We hold these truths to be self-evident, 
that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by 
their Creator with certain inalienable rights; that among 
these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness; that 
to secure these rights, governments are instituted among 
men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the 
governed. " There is the origin of Popular Sovereignty. 
[Loud applause.] Who, then, shall come in at this day 
and claim that he invented it.? 

[After referring, in appropriate terms, to the credit 



I80 LINCOLN S SPEECHES COMPLETE. 

claimed by Douglas for defeating the Lecompton policy 
Mr. Lincoln proceeds.] 

I defy you to show a printed resolution passed in a 
Democratic meeting — I take it upon myself to defy any 
man to show a printed resolution of a Democratic meet- 
ing, large or small, in favor of Judge Trumbull, or any of 
the five to one Republicans who beat that bill. Every 
thing must be for the Democrats! They did every thing, 
and the five to the one that really did the thing, they 
snub over, and they do not seem to remenberthat they 
have an existence upon the face of earth. 

LINCOLN AND DOUGLAS THE PERVERTED ISSUES. 

Gentlemen, I fear that I shall become tedious. I leave 
this branch of the subject to take hold of another. I take 
up that part of Judge Douglas speech in which he re- 
spectfully attended to me. 

A HOUSE DIVIDED AGAINST ITSELF CANNOT STAND. 

Judge Douglas made two points upon my recent speech 
at Springfield. He says they are to be the issues of this 
campaign. The first one of these points he bases upon: 
the language in a speech which I delivered at Springfield, 
which I believe I can quote correctly from memory. I 
said there that " we are now far on in the fifth year 
since a policy was instituted for the avowed object, and 
with the confident promise, of putting an end to slavery 
agitation; under the operation of that policy, that agita- 
tion had not only not ceased, but had constantly augment- 
ed. I believe it will not cease untill a crisis shall have' 
been reached and passed. A House divided against itself 
can not stand. I believe this Government can not endure 
permanently half slave and half free. I do not expect 



THE SENATORIAL CAMPAIGN. l8l 

the Union to be dissolved" — lam quoting from my speech 

'' I do not expect the house to fall, but I do expect it 

Avill cease to be divided. It will come all one thing or 
the other. Either the opponents of slavery will arrest 
the spread of it, and place it where the public mind shall 
rest in the belief that it is in the course of ultimate extin- 
tion, or its advocates will push it forward until it shall 
have become alike lawful in all the States, North as well 

as South." 

In this paragraph which I have quoted in your hear- 
ing, and to which I ask the attention of all. Judge Doug- 
las thinks he discovers great political heresy. I want 
your attention particularly to what he has inferred from 
it. He says I am in favor of making all the States of 
the Union uniform. He draws this inference from the 
language I have quoted to you. He says that I am in fa- 
vor of making war by the North upon the South for the 
extinction of slavery; that I am also in favor of inviting, 
as he expresses it, the South to a war upon the North, 
for the purpose of nationahzing slavery. Now, it is sin- 
gular enough, if you will carefully read that passage over, 
that I did not say that I was in favor of any such thing 
in it. I only said what I expected would take place. I 
made a prediction only — it may have been a foolish one 
perhaps. I did not even say that I desired that slavery 
should be put in course of ultimate extinction. I do say 
so now, however, so there need be no longer any difficul- 
ty about that. It may be written down in the next 

speech. 

Gentlemen, Judge Douglas informed you that this 
speech of mine was probably carefully prepared. I ad- 
mit that it was. I am not master of languag^e; I have 



152 LINCOLN S SPEECHES COMPLETE. 

not a fine education; I am not capable of entering into a 
disquisition upon dialects, as I believe you call it; but I 
don't believe the language lemployed bears any such con- 
struction as Judge Dougla puts upon it. But I don't care 
about a quibble in regard to words. I know what I 
meant, and 1 will not leave this crowd in doubt, if I can 
explain it to them, what I realy meant in the use of 
that paragraph. 

HALF SLAVE AND HALF FREE. 

I am not, in the first place, unaware that this Govern- 
ment has endured eighty-two years, half slave and half 
free. I know that. I am tolerably well acquainted with 
the history of the country, and I know that it has endured 
eighty-two years, half slave and half free. I believe — and 
that is what I meant to allude to there — I believe it has 
endured, because during all that time, until the introduc- 
tion of the Nebraska bill, the public mind did rest all the 
time in the belief that slavery was in cOurse of ultimate 
extinction. That was what gave us the rest that we had 
through that period of eighty-two years; at least, so I be- 
lieve. I have always hated slavery, I think, as much as 
any Aboltionist. I have been an Old Line Whig. I 
have always hated it, but I have always been quiet about 
it until this new era of the introduction of the Nebraska 
Bill began. I always believed that everybody was against 
it, and that it was in course of ultimate extinction. 
[Pointing to Mr. Browning, who stood nearby:] Brown- 
ing thought so; the great mass of the nation have rested 
in the belief that slavery was in course of ultimate extinc- 
tion. They had reason so to believe. 

The adoption of the Constitution and its attendant 



I S3 THE SENATORIAL CAMPAIGN. 

history led the people to believe so; and that such was 
the belief of the framers of the Constitution itself. Why 
did those old men, about the time of the adoption of the 
Constitution, decree that slavery should not go into the 
new territory, where it had not already gone? Why de- 
clare that within twenty years the African slave-trade, 
by which slaves are supplied, might be cut off by Con- 
gress? Why were all these acts? I might enumerate 
more of such acts — but enough. What were they but a 
clear indication that the framers of the Constitution in- 
tended and expected the ultimate extinction of that insti- 
tution? [Cheers.] And now when I say, as I said in this 
speech that Judge Douglas has quoted from, when I say 
that I think the opponents of slavery will resist the fur- 
ther spread of it, and place it where the public mind shall 
rest with the belief that it is in the course of ultimate 
extinction, I only meant to say, that they will place it 
where the foundation of this Government originally 
pl-aced it. 

I have said a hundred times, I have no inclination to 
take it back, that I believe there is no right, and ought 
to be no inclination in the people of the free States to en- 
ter into the slave States, and to interfere with the ques- 
tion of slavery at all. I have said that always. Judge 
Douglas has heard me say it — if not quite a hundred 
times, at least as good as a hundred times; and when it is 
said that I am in favor of interfering with slavery where 
it exists, I know that it is unwarranted by anything I 
have ever intended, and, as I believe, by anything I have 
ever used language which could fairly be so constructed 
(as however, 1 believe I never have ), I now correct it. 



1 84 LINCOLN'S SPEECHES COMPLETE. 

So much, then, for the inference that Judge Douglas 
draws, that I am in favor of setting the sections at war 
with one another. I know that I never meant any such 
thing, and I beheve that no fair mind can infer any such 
thing, from anything I have ever said. 

SELF-GOVERNMENT. 

Now in relation to his inference that I am in favor of a 
general consolidation of all the local institutions of the 
various States, I will attend to that for a little while, 
and try to inquire, if I can, how on earth it could be 
that any man could draw such an inference from any 
thing I said. I have said, very many times, in Judge 
Douglas's hearing, that no man believed more than I in 
the principle of self-government, from beginning to end. 
I have denied that his use of that term applied properly- 
But for the thing itself, I deny that any man has gone 
ahead of me in his devotion to the principle, whatever he 
may have done in efficiency in advocating it. I think 
that I have said in your hearing — that I belive each in- 
dividual is naturally entitled to do as he pleases with him- 
self and the fruit of his labor, so far as it in no wise inter- 
feres with any other man's rights — [applause] that each 
community, or a State, has a right to do exactly as it 
pleases with all the concerns within that State that inter- 
fere with the right of no other State, and that the Gen- 
eral Government, upon principle, has no right to inter- 
fere with any thing other than that general class of things 
that does concern the whole. I have said that at all 
times. I have said as illustrations, that I do not believe 
in the right of Illinois' to interfere with the cranberry 
laws of Indiana, the oyster laws of Virginia, or the liquor 



TAE SENATORIAL CAMPAIGN. 1 8$ 

laws of Maine. I have said these things over and over 
again, and I repeat them here as my sentiments. 

So much then as to my disposition — my v^ish — to have 
all the State Legislatures blotted out, and to have one 
consolidated government, and a uniformity of domestic 
regulations in all the States; by which I suppose it is 
meant, if we raise corn here, we must make sugar-cane 
too, and we must make those which grow North grow in 
the South. All this I suppose he understands, I am in 
favor of doing. Now so much for all this nonsense — for 
I must call it so. The Judge can have no isue with me 
on a question of established uniformity in the domestic 
regulations of the State. 

DRED SCOTT DECISION. 

A little now on the other point — the Dred Scott decision. 
Another of the issues he says that is to be made with me, 
is upon his devotion to the Dred Scott decision, and my 
opposition to it. 

I have expressed heretofore, and I now repeat my op- 
position to the Dred Scott decision, but I should be al- 
lowed to state the nature of that opposition, and I ask 
your indulgence while I do so. What is fairly implied 
by the term Judge Douglas has used, "resistance to the 
decision.^" I do not resist it. If I wanted to take Dred 
Scott from his master, I would be interfering with 
property, and that terrible difficulty that Judge Douglas 
speaks of, of interfering with property would arise. But 
I am doing no such thing as that, but all that I am doing 
is refusing to obey it as a political rule. If I were in 
Congress, and a vote should come up on a question 
whether slavery should be prohibited in a new Territory, 



I S6 LINCOLN S SPEECHES COMPLETE. 

in spite of the Dred Scott decision, I would vote that it 
should. 

That is what I would do. Judge Douglas said last 
night, that before the decision he might advance his 
opinion, and it might be contrary to the decision when 
it was made; but after it was made he would abide by it 
until it was reversed. Just so! We let this property 
abide by the decision, but we will try to reverse that de- 
cision. [Loud applause.] We will try to put it where 
Judge Douglas will not object, for he says he will obey 
it until it is reversed. Somebody has to reverse that de- 
cision, since it was made, and we mean to reverse it, and 
we mean to do it peaceably. 

What are the uses of decisions of courts.!^ They have 
two uses. As rules of property they have two uses. 
First^ — ^they decide upon the question before the court. 
They decide in this case that Dred Scott is a slave. No- 
body resists that. Not only that, but they say to every- 
body else, that persons standing just as Dred Scott stands, 
is as he is. That is, they say that when a question 
comes up upon another person, it will be so decided again 
unless the court decides in another way, unless the court 
everrules its decision. [Renewed applause.] Well, we 
mean to do what we can to have the court decide the other 
way. That is one thing we mean to try to do. 

The sacredness that Judge Douglas throws around this 
decision, is a degree of sacredness that has never been be- 
fore thrown around any other decision. I have never 
heard of such a thing. Why, decisions apparently con- 
trary to that decision, or good lawyers thought were con- 
trary to that decision, have been made by that very court 



18/ THE SENATORIAL CAMPAIGN. 

before. It is the first of its kind; it is an astonisher in 
legal history. It is a new wonder of the world. It is 
based on falsehoods in the main as to the facts — allega- 
tions of facts upon which it stands are not facts at all in 
many instances, and no decision made on any question — 
the first instance of a decision made under so many un- 
favorable circumstances — thus placed, as ever been held 
by the profession as law, and it has always needed con- 
firmation before the lawyers regarded it as settled law. 
But Judge Douglas will have it that all hands must take 
this extraordinary decision, made under these extraordi- 
nary circumstances, and give their vote in Congress in 
accordance with it, yield to it and obey it in every pos- 
sible sense. Circumstances alter cases. Do not gentle- 
men here remember the case of that Supreme Court, 
twenty-five or thirty years ago, deciding that a National 
Bank was Constitutional.? I ask, if somebody does not 
remember that a National Bank was declared to be Con- 
stitutional.? Such is the truth, whether it be remembered 
or not. The Bank charter ran out, and a re-charter was 
granted by Congress. That re-charter was laid before 
General Jackson. It was urged upon him, when he denied 
the Constitutionality of the Bank, that the Supreme Court 
had decided that it was Constitutional; and that General 
Jackson then said that the Supreme Court had no right 
to lay down a rule to govern a co-ordinate branch of the 
Government, the members of which have sworn to sup- 
port the Constitution — that each member had sworn to 
support that Constitution as he understood it. I will 
venture here to say, that I have heard Judge Douglas say 
that he approved of General Jackson for that act, What 



I 88 LINCOLNS SPEECHES COMPCETE. 

has now become of all his tirade about ''resistance to the 
L__Supreme Court?" 

THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE. 

We were often — more than once, at least — in the 
course of Judge Douglas's speech last night, reminded 
that this Government was made for white men — that he 
believed it was made for white men. Well that is putting 
it into a shape in which no one wants to deny it; but the 
judge then goes into his passion for drawing inferences 
that are not warranted. I protest, now and forever, 
against that counterfeit logic which presumes that be- 
cause I did not want a negro woman for a slave, I do nec- 
essarily want her for a wife. My understanding is that 
I need not have her for either; but as God made us sep- 
arate, we can leave one another alone, and do one an- 
other much good thereby. There are white men enough 
to marry all the white women, and enough black men to 
marry all the black women, and in God's name let them 
be so married. The judge regales us with the terrible 
enormities that take place by the mixture of races; that 
the inferior race bears the superior down. Why, judge 
if you do not let them get together in the Territories they 
won't mix there. 

A voice — "Three cheers for Lincoln." (The cheers 
were given with a hearty good will. 

Mr. L. — I should say at least that this is a self evident 
truth. 

Now, it happens that we meet together once every 
year, some time about the Fourth of July, for some 
reason or other. These Fourth of July gatherings I sup- 
pose have their uses. If you will indulge me, I will state 



THE SENATORIAL CAMPAIGN. 1^9 

wbat I suppose to be some of them. 

A MIGHTY NATION. 

We are now a mighty nation; we are thirty; or about 
thirty milHons of people, and we own and inhabit about 
one-fifteenth part of the dry land of the whole earth. We 
run our memory back over the pages of history for about 
eighty-two years, and we discover that we were then a 
very small people in point of numbers, vastly inferior to 
what we are now, with a vastly less extent of country, 
with vastly less of everything we deem desirable among 
men— we look upon the change as exceedingly advan- 
tageous to us and to our posterity, and we fix upon some- 
thing that happened away back, as in some way or other 
being connected with this rise of prosperity. We find a 
race of men living in that day whom we claim as our 
fathers and grandfathers; they were iron men; they fought 
for the principle that they were contending for; and we 
understood that by what they then did it has followed 
that the degree of prosperity which we now enjoy has 
come to us. We hold this annual celebration to remind 
ourselves of all the good done in this process of time, of 
how it was done and who did it, and how we are histori- 
cally connected with it; and we go from these meetings 
in better humor with ourselves — we feel more attached the 
one to the other, and more firmly bound to the country 
we inhabit. In every way we are better men in the age, 
and race, and country in which we live, for these celebra- 
tions. But after we have done all this, we have not yet 
reached the whole. There is something else connected 
with it. 

We have, besides these— men descended by blood 



i90 Lincoln's speech£s complete. 

from our ancestors — those among us, perhaps half ouf 
people, who are not descendants at all of these men; they 
are men who have come from Europe — German, Irish, 
French and Scandinavian — men that have come from 
Europe themselves, or whose ancestors have come hither 
and settled here, finding themselves our equals in all 
things. If they look back through this history to trace 
their connection with those days by blood, they find they 
have none; they cannot carry themselves back into that 
glorious epoch and make themselves feel they are part of 
us; but when they look through that old Declaration of 
Independence, they find that those old men say that 
' 'We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men 
are created equal," and then they feel that that moral 
sentiment, taught on that day, evidences their relation to 
those men, that it is the father of all moral principle in 
them, and that they have a right to claim it as though 
they were blood of the blood and flesh of the flesh of the 
men who wrote that Declaration [loud and long-continued 
applause,] and so they are. That is the electric cord in 
that Declaration that links the hearts of patriotic and 
liberty-loving men together, that will link those patriotic 
hearts as long as the love of freedom exists in the minds 
of men throughout the world. [Applause.] 

RUBBING OUT THE SENTIMENT OF LIBERTY. 

Now, sirs, for the purpose of squaring things with this 
idea or "don't care if slavery is voted up or voted down," 
for sustaining the Dred Scott decision, for holding that 
the Declaration of Independence did not mean anything 
at all, we have Judge Douglas giving his exposition of 



THE SENATORIAL CAMPAIGN. IQI 

what the Declaration of Independence means and we have 
him saying that the people of America are equal to the 
people of England. According to his construction, you 
Germans are not connected with it. Now I ask you in 
all soberness, if all these things, if indulged in, if ratified 
if confirmed and indorsed, if taught to our children and 
repeated to them, do not tend to rub out the sentiment 
of Hberty in the country, and to transform this Govern- 
ment into a government of some other form. 

These arguments that are made, that the inferior race 
are to be treated with as much allowance as they are cap- 
able of enjoying; that as much is to be done for them as 
their condition will allow — what are these arguments.^ 
they are the arguments that Kings have made for enslav- 
ing the people in all ages of the world. You will find 
that all the arguments in favor of King-craft were of this 
class; they always bestrode the necks of the .people, not 
that they wanted to do it, but because the people were 
better off for being ridden. That is their argument, and 
this argument of the judge is the same old serpent that 
says: You work and I eat, you toil and I will enjoy the 
fruits of it. Turn it whatever way you will — whether it 
comes from the mouth of a King, an excuse for enslaving 
the people of his couutry, or from the mouth of men of 
one race as a reason for enslaving the men of another race, 
it is all the same old serpent, and I hold if that course of 
argumentation that is made for the purpose of convincing 
the public mind that we should not care about this, 
should be granted, it does not stop with the negro. I 
should like to know, if taking this old Declaration of In- 
dependence, which declares that all men are equal upon 



192 Lincoln's speeches complete. 

principle, you begin making exceptions to it, where you 
will stop? 'If one man says it does not mean a negro, 
why not another say it does not mean some other man ? 
If that declaration is not the truth, let us get the statute 
book, in which we find it, and tear it out! Who is so 
bold as to do it! If it is not true, let us tear it out! 
[cries of ''no, no']; let us stick to it then; let us stand 
firmly by it then. [Applause,] 

It may be argued that there are certain conditions that 
make necessities and impose them upon us, and to the 
extent that a necessity is imposed upon a man, he must 
submit to it. I think that was the condition in which 
we found ourselves when we established this Government. 
We have slaves among us; we could not get our Constitu- 
tion unless we permitted them to remain in slavery; we 
could not secure the good we did secure if we grasped for 
more; and having, by necessity, submitted to that much, 
it does not destroy the principle that is the charter of our 
liberties. Let that charter stand as our standard. 

LET us STAND FIRMLY BY EACH OTHER. 

My friend has said to me that I am a poor hand to 
quote Scripture. « I will try it again however. It is said 
in one of the admonitions of our Lord: "As your Father 
in Heaven is perfect, be ye also perfect." The Saviour, 
I suppose, did not expect that any human creature could 
be perfect as the Father in Heaven; but He said: As 
your Father in heaven is perfect, be ye also perfect. " He 
set that up as a standard, and he who did most toward 
reaching that standard, attained the highest degree of 
moral perfection. So I say in relation to the principle 
that all men are created equal, let it be as nearly reached 



THE SENATORIAL CAMPAIGN 1 93 

as we can. If we cannot give freedom to every creature, 
let us do nothing that will impose slavery upon any other 
creature. [Applause.] Let us then turn this Govern- 
ment back into the channel in which the framers of the 
Constitution originally placed it. Let us stand firmly by 
each other. If we do not do so we are turning in the 
contrary direction, that our friend Judge Douglas pro- 
poses — not intentionally — as working in the traces tends 
to make this one universal slave nation. He is one that 
runs in that direction, and as such I resist him. 

My friends, I have detained 3^ou about as long as I de- 
sire to do, and I have only to say, let us discard all this 
quibbling about this man and the other man — this race 
and that race and the other race being inferior, and 
therefore they must be placed in an inferior position — 
discarding our standard that we have left us. Let us 
discard all these things, and unite as one people through- 
out this land, until we shall once more stand up declaring 
that all men are created equal. 

My friends, I could not, without launching off upon 
some new topic, which would detain you too long, con- 
tinue to-night. I thank you for this most extensive 
audience that you have furnished me to-night. I leave 
you, hoping that the lamp of liberty will burn in your 
bosoms until there shall no longer be a doubt that all 
men are created free and equal. 



INEQUALITIES OF THE CONTEST. 

[Delivered at Springfield, 111. July 17, 1858.] 

Fellow Citizems: — Another election, which is deemed 
an important one, is approaching, and, as I suppose, the 
Repubhcan party will; without much difficulty, elect 
their State Ticket. But in regard to the Legislature, we 
the Republicans, labor under some disadvantages. In 
the first place, we have a Legislature to elect upon an 
apportionment of the representation made several years 
ago, when the proportion of the population was far greater 
in the South (as compared with the North) than it now 
is; and inasmuch as our opponents hold almost entire 
sway in the South, and we a correspondingly large ma- 
jority in the North, the fact that we are now to be repre- 
sented as we were years ago, when the population was 
different, is' to us a very great disadvantage. 

We had in the year 1855, according to a law, or enum- 
eration of the inhabitants, taken for the purpose of a new 
apportionment of representation upon that census would 
give us. We know that it could not, if fairly made, 
fail to give the Republican party from six to ten more 
members of the Legislature than they can probably get 
as the law now stands. It so happened at the last session 
of the Legislature, that our opponents, holding the con- 
trol of both branches of the Legislature, steadily refused 
to give us such an apportionment as we were rightly en- 

[194] 



THE CONTEST. 195 

titled to have upon the census already taken. The Leg- 
islature would pass no bill upon that subject, except such 
as was at least as unfair to us as the old one, and in which 
in some instances, two men from the Democratic regions 
were allowed to go as far toward sending a member to 
the Legislature as three were in the Republican regions. 
Comparsion was made at the time as to representative 
and senatorial districts, which completely demonstrated 
that such was the fact. Such a bill was passed, and 
tendered to the Republican Governor for his signature; 
but principally for the reasons I have stated, he withheld 
his approval, and the bill fell without becoming a law. 

Another disadvantage under which we labor is, that 
there are one or two Democratic Senators who will be 
members of the next Legislature, and will vote for the 
election of Senator, who are holding over in districts in 
which we could, on all reasonable calculation, elect men 
of our own, if we only had the chance of an election. 
When we consider that there are but twenty-five Sena- 
tors in the Senate, taking two from the side where they 
rightly belong, and adding them to the other, is to us a 
disadvantage not to be rightly regarded. Still, so it, is; 
we have this to contend with. Perhaps there is no 
ground of complaint on our part. In attending to the 
many things involved in »the last general election for 
President, Governor, Auditor, Treasurer, Superintendent 
of Public Instruction, Members of Congress and of the 
Legislature, County OfBcers, and so on, we allowed these 
things to happen for want of sufficient attention, and we 
have no cause to complain of our adversaries, so far as 
this matter is concerned. But we have some cause to 



196 Lincoln's speeches complete. 

complain of the refusal to give us a fair apportionment. 

WE MUST FIGHT THE BATTLE ON PRINCIPLE. 

There is still another disadvantage under which we 
labor, and to which I will ask your attention. It arises 
out of the relative position of the two persons who stand 
before the State as candidates for the Senate. Senator 
Douglas is of world-wide renown. All the anxious pol- 
iticians of his party, or who have been of his party for 
years past, have been looking upon him as certainly, at 
no distant day, to be the President of the United States. 
They have seen in his round, jolly, fruitful face, post of- 
fices, land offices, marshalships, and cabinet appoint- 
ments, chargeships and foreign missions, bursting and 
sprouting out in wonderful luxuriance, ready to be laid 
hold of by their greedy hands. [Great laughter.] And 
as they have been gazing upon this attractive picture so 
long, they cannot, in the little distraction that has taken 
place in the party, bring themselves to give up the charm- 
ing hope; but with greedier anxiety they rush about him, 
sustain him, and give him marches, triumphal entries, 
and receptions, beyond what even in the days of his 
highest prosperity they could have brought about in his 
favor. On the contrary, nobody has ever expected me 
to be President. In my poor, lean, lank face, nobody 
has ever seen that cabbages were sprouting out. [Cheer- 
ing and laughter.] These are disadvantages all, that the 
Republicans labor under. We have to fight this battle 
upon principle, and upon principle alone. I am, in a 
certain sense, made the standard-bearer in behalf of the 
Repbulicans. I was made so merely because there had 



THE CONTEST. 197 

to be some one so placed — I being in no wise preferable 
to any other one of the twenty-five — perhaps a hundred 
we have in the Republican ranks. Then I say I wish it 
to be distinctly understood and borne in mind, that we 
have to fight this battle without many — perhaps without 
any — of the external aids which are brought to bear 
against us. So I hope those with whom I am surrounded 
have principle enough to nerve themselves for the task, 
and leave nothing undone, that can be fairly done, to 
bring about the right result. 

THE DOUGLAS PROGRAMME. 

After Senator Douglas left Washington, as his move- 
ments were made known py the public prints, he tarried 
a considerable time in the city of New York; and it was 
heralded that, like another Napoleon, he was lying by 
and framing the plan of his campaign. It was telegraph- 
ed to Washington city, and published in the Union, that 
he was framing his plan for the purpose of going to 
Illinois to pounce upon and annihilate the treasonable 
and disunion speech which Lincoln had made here on 
the i6thof June. Now, I do suppose the judge really 
spent some time in New York maturing the plan of the 
campaign, as his friends heralded for him. I have been 
able, by noting his movements since his arrival in Illinois, 
to discover evidences confirmatory of that allegation. I 
think I have been able to see what are the material 
points of that plan. I will, for a little while, ask your 
attention to some of them. What I shall point out. 
though not showing the whole plan, are nevertheless, 
the main points, as I suppose. 

They are not very numerous. The first is popular 



198 LINCOLN'S SPEECHES COMPLETE. 

sovereignty. The second and third are attacks upon my 
speech made on the i6th of June. Out of these three 
points — drawing within the range of popular sovereignty 
the question of the Lecompton Constitution — he makes 
his principle assault. Upon these his successive speeches 
are substantially one and the same. On this matter of 
popular sovereignity I wish to be a little careful. Auxi- 
liary to these main points, to be sure, are their thunder- 
ings of cannon, their marching and music, their fizzle- 
gigs and fire-works; but I will not waste time with them. 
They are but the little trappings of the campaign. 

POPULAR SOVEREIGNTY. 

Coming to the substance — the first point — ''popular 
sovereignty." It is to be labeled upon the cars in which 
he travels; put upon the hacks he rides in; to be flaunted 
upon the arches he passes under, and the banners which 
waves over him. It is to be dished up in as many varie- 
ties as a French cook can. produce soups from potatoes. 
Now, as this is so great a staple of the plan of the cam- 
paign, it is worth while to examine it carefully; and if 
we examine only a very little, and do not allow ourselves 
to be misled, we shall be able to see that the whole thing 
is the most arrant Quixotism that was ever enacted be- 
fore a community. What is this matter of popular sov- 
ereignty.? The first thing, in order to understand it, is 
to get a good definition of what it is, and after that to 
see how it is applied. 

I suppose almost every one knows, that in this con- 
troversy, whatever has been said has had reference to 
the question of negro slavery. We have not been in a 
controversy about the right of the people to govern them- 



THE CONTEST. 1 99 

selves in the ordinary matters of domestic concern in the 
States and Territories. Mr. Buchanan, in one of his 
late messages (I think when he sent up the Lecompton 
Constitution,) urged that the main point to which the 
public attention has been directed, was not in regard to 
the great variety of small domestic matters but it was 
directed to the question of negro slavery; and he asserts, 
that if the people had had a fair chance to vote on that 
question, there was no reasonable ground of objection in 
regard to minor questions. Now, while I think that the 
people had not had given, or offered them, a fair chance 
upon that slavery question; still, if their had been a fair 
submission to a vote upon that main question, the Presi- 
dent's proposition would have been true to the utter- 
most. Hence, when hereafter I speak of popular sove- 
reignty, I wish to be understood as applying what I say 
to the question of slavery only, not ^to other minor do- 
mestic matters of a Territory or a State. 

Does Judge Douglas, when he says that several of the 
past years of his life have been devoted to the question of 
"popular sovereignty," and that all the remainder of 
his life shall be devoted to it, does he mean to say that 
he has been devoting his life to securing to the people of 
the Territories, the right to exclude slavery from the 
Territories.? If he means so to say, he means to deceive; 
because he and everyone knows that the decision of the 
Supreme Court, which he approves and makes an especial 
ground of attack upon me for disapproving, forbids the 
people of a Territory to exclude slavery. This covers 
the whole ground, from the settlement of a Territory till 
it reaches the degree of maturity entitling it to form a 



200 LINCOLNS SPEECHES COMPLETE. 

State Constitution. So far as all that ground is con- 
cerned, the judge is not sustaining popular sovereignty, 
but absolutely opposing it. He sustains the decision 
which declares that the popular will of the Territories 
has no Constitutional power to exclude slavery during 
their Territorial existence. [Cheers.] This being so, 
the period of time, from the first settlement of Territory 
till it reaches the point of forming a State Constitution, 
is not the thing that the judge has fought for, and is 
fighting for, the thing that annihilates and crushes out 
that same popular sovereignty. 

Well, so much being disposed of, what is left.? Why, 
he is contending for the right of the people, when they 
come to make a State Constitution, to make it for them- 
selves, and precisely as best suits themselves. I say 
again, that is Quixotic. I defy contradiction, when I 
declare that the judge can find no one to oppose him 
on that proposition. . I repeat, there is nobody opposing 
that proposition on principle. Let me not be misunder- 
stood. I know that, with reference to the Lecompton 
Constitution, I may be misunderstood; but when you 
understand me correctly, my proposition will be true and 
accurate. Nobody is opposing, or has opposed, the 
right of the people, when they form a Constitution, to 
form it for themselves. Mr. Buchanan and his friends 
have not done it; they, too, as well as the Republicans 
and the Anti-Lecompton Democrats have not done it; 
but, on the contrary, they together have insisted on the 
right of the people to form a Constitution for them- 
selves. The difference between the Buchanan men, on 
the one hand, and the Douglas men and the Republicans 



THE CONTEST. 20I 

on the other, has not been on a question of principle, but 
on a question of fact. 

The dispute was upon the question of fact, whether 
the Lecompton Constitution had been fairly formed by 
the people, or not. Mr. Buchanan and his friends have 
not contended for the contrary principle, any more than 
the Douglas men or the Republicans. They have insist- 
ed, that whatever of small irregularities existed in getting 
up the Lecompton Constitution, were such as happen in 
the settlement of all new Territories. The qestion was, 
was it a fair emanation of the people.^ It was a question 
of fact, and not of principle. As to the principle, all 
were agreed. Judge Douglas voted with the Republicans 
upon that matter of fact. 

He and they, by their voices and votes, denied that it 
was a fair emanation of the people. The Administration 
affirmed that it was. With respect to the evidence bear- 
ing upon that question of fact, I readily agree that Judge 
Douglas and the Republicans had the right on their side, 
and that the Administration was wrong. But I state 
again that, as a matter of principle, there is no dispute 
upon the right of a people in a Territory, merging into a 
State, to form a Constitution for themselves, without 
outside interference from any quarter. This being so, 
what is Judge Douglas going to spend his life for.? Is he 
going to spend his life in maintaining a principle that 
nobody on earth opposes.? [Cheers.] Does he expect to 
stand up in majestic dignity, and go through his apotheosis, 
and become a god, in the maintaining of a principle 
which neither man nor mouse, in all God's creation, is 
opposing.? [Great applause.] 



:202 LINCOLN'S SPEECHES COMPLETE. 

How will he prove that we have ever occupied a diff- 
erent position in regard to the Lecompton Constitution, 
or any principle in it? He says he did not make his op- 
position on the ground as to whether it was a free or a 
slave Constitution, and he would have you understand 
that the Republicans made their opposition because it 
ultimately became a slave Constitution. To make proof 
in favor of himself on this point, he reminds us that he 
opposed Lecompton before the vote was taken declaring 
whether the State was to be free or slave. But he for- 
gets to say, that our Republican Senator, Trumbull, 
made a speech against Lecompton even before he did. 

Why did he oppose it.^ Partly, as he declares, because 
the members of the Convention who framed it were not 
fairly elected by the people; that the people were not 
allowed to vote unless they had been registered; and that 
the people of whole counties, in some instances, were 
not registered. For these reasons he declares the Con- 
stitution was not an emanation, in any true sense, from 
the people. He also has an additional objection as to 
the mode of submitting the Constitution back to the 
people. But bearing on the question of whether the 
delegates were fairly elected, a speech of his made some- 
thing more than twelve months ago, from fhis stand, be- 
comes important. It was made a little while before the 
election of the delegates who made Lecompton. In that 
speech he declared there was every reason to hope and 
believe the election would be fair; and if anyone failed 
to vote it would be his own fault. 

I, a few days after, made a sort of answer to that 
speech, In that answer, I made, substa.ntially, the very 



THE CONTEST. 203 

argument with which he combated his Lecompton ad- 
versaries in the Senate last winter. I pointed to the 
fact that the people could not vote without being regis- 
tered, and that the time for registering had gone by. I 
commented on it as wonderful that Judge Douglas could 
be ignorant of these facts, which every one else in the 
nation so well knew. 

He charges, in substance, that I invite a war of sections; 
that I propose that all the local institutions of the dif- 
ferent States shall become consolidated and uniform. 
What is there in the language of that speech which ex- 
presses such purpose, or bears such construction.^ I have 
again and again said that I would not enter into any of 
the States to disturb the institution of slavery. Judge 
Douglas said, at Bloomington, that I used language most 
able and ingenious for conceaHng what I really meant; 
and that, while I had protested against entering into 
the slave States, I nevertheless did mean to go on the 
banks of the Ohio and throw missiles into Kentucky, to 
disturb the people there in their domestic institutions. 

I said in that speech, and I meant no more, that the 
institution of slavery ought to be placed in the very atti- 
tude where the framers of this Government placed it, and 
left it. I do not understand that the framers of our 
Constitution left the people of the free States in the atti- 
tude of firing bombs or shells into the slave States. I 
was not using that passage for the purpose for which he 
infers I did use it. Now you all see, from that quotation, 
I did not express my wish on anything. In that passage 
I indicated no wish or purpose of my own; I simply ex- 
pressed my expectation. 



204 LINCOLN'S SPEECHES COMPLETE. 

Mr. Brooks, of South Carolina, in one of his speeches, 
when they were presenting him canes, silver plate, gold 
pitchers and the like, for assaulting Senator Sumner, 
distinctly affirmed his opinion that when this Constitution 
was formed, it was the belief of no man that slavery would 
last to the present day. 

He said, what I think, that the framers of our Con- 
stitution placed the institution of slavery where the public 
mind rested in the hope that it was in the course of 
ultimate extinction. But he went on to say that the men 
of the present age, by their experience, have become 
wiser than the framers of the Constitution; and the in- 
vention of the cotton-gin had made the perpetuity of 
slavery a necessity in this country. 

Now, I wish to know what the judge can charge upon 
me, with respect to decisions of the Supreme Court, 
which does not lie in all its length, breadth and proportion 
at his own door. The plain truth is simply this: Judge 
Douglas is for Supreme Court decisions when he likes 
and against them when he does not like them. He is 
for the Dred Scott decision because it intends to nation- 
alize slavery — because it is part of the original combina- 
tion for that object. It so happened, singularly enough, 
that I never stood opposed to a decision of the Supreme 
Court till this. On the contrary, I have no recollection 
that he was ever particularly in favor of one till this. 
He never was in favor of any, nor I opposed to any, till 
the present one, which helps to nationalize slavery. 

Free men of Sangamon — free men of Illinois — free 
men everywhere — ^judge ye between him and me, upon 
this issue. 



SEVEN INTERROGATORIES ANSWERED. 

(Delivered at Freeport, 111 July, 1858,) 

Ladies and Gentlemen: — On Saturday last, Judge 
Douglas and myself first met in public discussion. He 
spoke one hour, I an hour and a half, and he replied for 
half an hour. The order is now reversed. I am to speak 
an hour, he an hour and a half, and then I am to reply 
for half an hour. I propose to devote myself during the 
first hour to the scope of what was brought within the 
range of his half-hour speech at Ottawa. Of course 
there was brought within the scope of that half-hour's 
speech something of his own opening speech. In the 
course of that opening argument Judge Douglas proposed 
to me seven distinct interrogatories. 

In my speech of an hour and a half, I attended to 
some other parts of his speech, and incidentally, as I 
thought, answered one of the interrogatories then. I then 
distinctly intimated to him that I would answer the rest 
of his interrogatories on condition only that he should a- 
gree to answer as many for me. He made no intimation 
at the time of the proposition, nor did he in his reply 
allude at all to that suggestion of mine. I do him no in- 
justice in saying that he occupied at least half of his re- 
ply in dealing with me as though I had refused to answer 
his interrogatories. I now propose that I will answer 
any of the interrogatories, upon condition that he will an- 

[205] 



2o6 Lincoln's speeches complete. 

swer questions from me not exceeding the same number. 
I give him an opportunity to respond. The Judge remained 
silent. I now say that I will answer his interrogatories, 
whether he answers mine or not [applause]; and that 
after I have done so, I shall propound mine to him. 
[Applause.] 

I have supposed myself, since the organization of the 
Republican party at Bloomington, in May, 1856, bound 
as a party man by the platform of the party, then and 
since. If in any interrogatories which I shall answer I 
go beyond the scope of what is within these platforms, it 
will be perceived that no one is responsible but myself. 

Having said thus much, I will take up the Judge's in- 
terrogatories as I find them printed in the Chicago Times, 
and answer them seriatim. In order that there may be 
no mistake about it, I have copied the interrogatories in 
writing, and also my answers to them. The first one of 
these interrogatories is in these words: 

Q. I. ''I desire to know whether Lincoln to-day 
stands, as he did in 1854, in favor of the unconditional 
repeal of the Fugitive Slave Law.^" 

Answer. I do not now, nor never did. stand in favor of 
the unconditional repeal of the Fugitive Slave Law. 

Q. 2. "I desire him to answer whether he stands 
pledged to-day, as he did in 1854, against the admission 
of any more slave States into the Union, even if the 
people want them.? 

A. I do not now, nor never did, stand pledged against 
the admission of any more slave States into the Union. 

Q. 3. ''I want to know whether he stands pledged a- 
gainst the admission of a new State into the Union with 



SEVEN INTERROGATORIES. 20/ 

such a Constitution as the people of that State may see 
fit to make? " 

A. I do not stand pledged against the admission of a 
new State into the Union, with such a constitution as 
the people of that State may see fit to make. 

Q. 4 '' I want to know whether he stands to-day 
pledged to the aboHtion of slavery in the District of 
Columbia.?" 

A. I do not stand to-day pledged to the abolition of 
slvaery in the District of Columbia. 

Q. 5. ''I desire him to answer whether he stands 
pledged to the prohibition of the slave-trade between the 
different States.? " 

A, I do not stand pledged to the prohibition of the 
slave-trade between the different States. 

Q. 6. I desire to know whether he stands pledged to 
prohibit slavery in all the Territories of the United States, 
North as well as South of the Missouri Compromise hne.?" 

A. I am imphedly, if not expressly, pledged to a be- 
lief in the right, and duty of Congress to prohibit slavery 
in all the United States Territories. [Great applause.] 

Q. 7. ' 'I desire to know whether he is opposed to the ac- 
quisition of any new territory unless slavery is first pro- 
hibited therein.? " 

A. I am not generally opposed to honest acquisition of 
territory; and, in any given case, I would or would not 
oppose such acquisition, accordingly as I might think 
such acquisition would or would not agitate the slavery 
question among ourselves. 

Now, my friends, it will be perceived upon an exami- 
nation of these questions and answers, that so far I have 



208 LINCOLN'S SPEECHES COMPLETE. 

only answered that I was not pledged to this, that or the 
other. The Judge has not framed his interrogatories to 
ask me any thing more than this, and I have answered 
in strict accordance with the interrogatories, and have 
answered truly that I am not pledged at all upon any of 
the points to which I have answered. But I am not dis- 
posed to hang upon the exact form of his interrogatory. I 
am rather disposed to take up at least some of these ques- 
tions, and state what I really think upon them. 

Lincoln's position more fully defined. 

As to the first one, in regard to the Fugitive Slave law, 
I have never hesitated to say, and I do not now hesitate 
to say, that I think, under the Constitution of the United 
States, the people of the Southern States are entitled to 
a Congressional Slave law. Having said that, I have noth- 
ing to say in regard to the existing Fugitive Slave law, 
further than that I think it should have been framed so as 
to be free from some of the objections that pertain to it, 
without lessening its effiiciency. And in as much as we 
are not now in an agitation upon the general question of 
slavery. 

In regard to the other question, of whether I am 
pledged to the admission of any more slave States into 
the Union, I state to you frankly that I would be ex- 
ceedingly sorry ever to be put in a position of having to 
pass upon that question. I should be exceedingly glad 
to know that there would never be another slave State 
admitted into the Union; but I must add, that if slavery 
shall be kept out of the Territories during the Territorial 
existence of any one given Territory, and then the peo- 
ple shall, having a fair chance and a clear field, when 



SEVEN INTERROGATORIES. 209 

when they come to adopt the Constitution, do such an 
extraordinary thing as to adopt the Constitution, unin- 
fluenced by the actual presence of the institution among 
them, I see no alternative if we own the country, but to 
admit them into the Union. [Applause.] 

The third interrogatory is answered by the answer to 
the second, it being, as I conceive, the same as the 
second. 

The fourth one is in regard to the abolition of slavery 
in the District of Columbia. In relation to that, I have 
my mind very distinctly made up. I should be exceed- 
ingly glad to see slavery abolished in the District of Col- 
umbia. I believe that Congress possesses the Constitu- 
tional power to abolish it. Yet as a member of Con- 
gress, I should not with my present views be in favor of 
endeavoring to abolish slavery in the District of Colum- 
bia, unless it would be upon these conditions: First, that 
the abolition should be gradual; second, that it should 
be on a vote of the majority of qualified voters in the 
District; and third, that compensation should be made to 
unwilling owners. With these three conditions, I con- 
fess I would be exceedingly glad to see Congress abolish 
slavery in the District of Columbia, and in the language 
of Henry Clay, ''sweep from our Capital that foul blot 
upon our nation." 

In regard to the fifth interrogatory, I must say that as 
to the question of abolition of the slave-trade between the 
different States, I can truly answer,' as I have, that I am 
pledged to nothing about it. It is a subject to which I 
have not given that mature consideration that would make 
me feel authorized to state a position so as to hold my- 



2 10 LINCOLN S SPEECHES COMPLETE. 

self entirely bound by it. In other words, that question 
has never been prominently enough before me to induce 
me to investigate whether we really have the Constitu- 
tional power to do it. I could investigate if I had suffi- 
cient time to bring myself to a conclusion upon that sub- 
ject; but I have not done so, and I say so frankly fo you 
here, and to Judge Douglas. I must say, however, that 
if I should be of the opinion that Congress does possess 
the Constitutional power to abolish slave-trading among 
the different States, I should still not be in favor of that 
power unless upon some conservative principle as I con- 
ceive it, akin to what I have said in relation to the abo- 
lution of slavery in fhe Distric of Columbia. 

My answer as to whether I desire that slavery should 
be prohibited iu all Territories of the United States, is 
full and explicit within itself, and can not be made 
clearer by any comments of mine. So I suppose in re- 
gard to the question whether I am opposed to the acqui- 
sition of any more territory unless slavery is such that 
I could add nothing by way of illustration, or making 
myself better understood, than the answer, which I have 
placed in writing. 

Now in all this, the Judge has me, and he has me on 
the record, I suppose he had flattered himself that I • 
was really entertaining one set of opinions for one place 
and another set for another place — that I was afraid to 
say at one place what I uttered at another. What I 
am saying here I suppose I say to a vast audience in 
the State of Illinois, and I believe I am saying that 
which, if it would be offensive to any persons and render 
them enemies to myself, would be offensive to persons 
in this audience. 



LINCOLN'S FIRST SPEECH IN OHIO. 
THE SITUATION. 

Delivered at Columbus, Ohio, September, 1859, 

Fellow-sitizens of the State of ohio: I can not 
fail to remember that I appear for the first time before an 
audience in this now great State— an audience that is 
accustomed to hear such speakers as Corwin, and Chase, 
and Wade, and many other renownd men; and remember- 
ing this, I feel .that it will be well for you, as for me, that 
you should not raise your expectations to that standard 
to which you would have been justified in raising them 
had one of these distinguised men appeared before you. 
You would perhaps be only preparing a disappointment 
for yourselves, and, as a consequence of your disappoint- 
ment, mortification to me. I hope, therefore, that you 
vv'ill commence with very moderate expectations; and 
perhaps, if you will give me your attention, I shall be 
able to interest you to a moderate degree. 

HIS SUBJECT. 

Appearing here for the first time in my life, I have 
been somewhat embarrassedfor a topic by way of intro- 
duction to my speech; but I have been relieved from that 
embarrassment by an introduction which the Ohio States- 
men newspaper gave me this morning. In this paper, I 

[211] 



212 Lincoln's speeches complete. 

have read an article, in which, among other statements, 
I find the following: 

"In debating with Senator Douglas during the memorable contest of 
last fall, Mr Lincoln declared in favor of negro suffrage, and attempted to 
defend that vile conception against the Little Giant. 
HE CORRECTS THE EDITOR. 

I mention this now, at the opening of my remarks, for 
the purpose of making three comments upon it. The 
first I have already announced — it furnishes me an in- 
troductory topic; the second is to show that the gentle- 
man is mistaken; thirdly, to give him an opportunity to 
correct it. 

In the first place, in regard to this matter being a mis- 
take. 1 have found that it is not entirely safe, when one 
is misrepresented under his own nose, to allow the mis- 
representation to go uncontradicted. I therefore propose 
here, at the outset, not only to say that this is a misrep- 
resentation, but to show conclusively that it is so; and 
you will bear with me while I read a couple of extracts 
from that very "memorable" debate with Judge Douglas 
last year, to which this newspaper refers. In the first 
pitched battle which Senator Douglas and myself had, at 
the town of Ottawa, I used the language which I will now 
read. Having been previously reading an extract, I con- 
tinued as follows: 

"Now, gentlemen, I don't want to read at any greater 
length, but this is the true complexion of all I have ever 
said in regard to the institution of slavery and the black 
race. This is the whole of it, and anything that argues 
me into his idea of perfect social and political equality 
with the negro, is but a specious and fantastic arrange- 



THE SITUATION. 213 

ment of words, by which a man can prove a horsechest- 
nut to be a chestnut horse. I will say here, while upon 
this subject, that I have no purpose directly or indirect- 
ly to interfere with the institution of slavery in the states 
where it exists. I believe I have no lawful right to do so, 
and I have no inclination to do so. I have no purpose 
to introduce political and social equality between the 
white and the black races. There is a physical difference 
between the two which, in my judgement, will probably 
forbid their ever living together upon the footing of per- 
fect equality; and inasmuch as it becomes a necessity that 
there must be a difference, I, as well as Judge Douglas, 
am in favor of the race to which I belong having the 
superior position. I have never said anything to the 
contrary, but I hold that, notwithstanding all this, there 
is no reason in the world why the negro is not entitled 
to all the natural rights enumerated in the Declaration 
of Independence— the right of life, liberty, and the pur- 
suit of happiness. I hold that he is as much entitled to 
these as the white man. I agree with Judge Douglas, he 
is not my equal in many respects— certainly not in color, 
perhaps not in moral or intellectual endowments, but 
in the right to eat the bread, without leave of anybody 
else, which his own hands earn, he is my equal, and the 
equal of Judge Douglas, and the equal of every living 
man." 

LINCOLN'S VIEWS OF NEGRO SUFFRAGE, ETC. 

Upon a subsequent occasion, when the reason for mak- 
ing a statement like this recurred, I said: 

' 'While I was at the hotel to-day, an elderly gentle- 
man called upon me to know whether I was really in 



214 LINCOLN'S SPEECHES COMPLETE. 

favor of producing perfect equality between the negroes 
and the white people. While I had not proposed to my- 
self on this occasion to say much on the subject, yet as 
the question was asked me, I thought I would occupy per- 
haps five minutes in saying something in regard to it. I 
will say, then, that I am not, nor ever have been, in favor 
of bringing about in any way the social and political equal- 
ity of the white and the black races — that I am not nor 
ever have been in favor of making voters or jurors of ne- 
groes nor of qualifying them to hold office, or intermarry 
with white people; and I will say in addition to this, 
that there is a physical difference between the white and 
the black races which I believe will forever forbid the two 
races living together on terms of social and political equal- 
ity. And inasmuch as they can not so live, while they 
do remain together there must be the position of superior 
and inferior, and I, as much as any other man, am in 
favor of having the superior position assigned to the 
white race. I say upon this occasion I do not perceive 
that because the white man is to have the superior posi- 
tion, the negro should be denied everything. I do not 
understand that because I do not want a negro woman 
for a slave, that I must necessarily want her for a wife. 
My understanding is that I can just let her alone. 

I am now in my fiftieth year, and I certainly never 
have had a black woman for either a slave or a wife. So 
it seems to me quite possible for us to get along without 
making either slaves or wives of negroes. I will add to 
this that I have never seen to my knowledge a man, 
woman, or child, who was in favor of producing perfect 
equality, social and political, between negroes and white 



THE SITUATION. 21 5 

men. I recollect of but one distinguished instance that 
I ever heard of so frequently as to be satisfied of its cor- 
rectness — and that is the case of Judge Douglas's old 
friend, Colonel Richard M. Johnson. I will also add to 
the remarks I have made (for I am not going to enter at 
large upon this subject,) that I have never had the least 
apprehension that I or my friends would marry negroes, 
if there was no law to keep them from it; but as Judge 
Douglas and his friends seem to be in great apprehension 
that they might, if there were no law to keep them from 
it I give him the most solemn pledge that I will, to the 
very, last, stand by the law of the state, which forbids 
the marrying of white people with negroes." 

There, my friends, you have briefly what I have, on 
former occasions, said upon the subject to which this 
newspaper, to the extent of its abihty, has drawn the 
public attention. In it you not only perceive, as a prob- 
ability, that in that contest I did not at any time say I 
was in favor of negro suffrage, but the absolute proof 
that twice, once substantially and once expressly, I de- 
clared against it. Having shown you this, there remains 
but a word of comment upon that newspaper article. 
It is this, that I presume the editor of that paper is an 
honest truth-loving man, and that he will be greatly 
obliged to me for furnishing him thus early an opportun- 
ity to correct the misrepresentation he has made, before 
it has run so long that malicous people can call him a 
liar. 

THE LITTLE GIANT. 

The Giant himself has been here recently. I have 
seen a brief report of his speech. If it were otherwise 



2 I 6 LINCOLNS SPEECHES COMPLETE. 

unpleasant to me to introduce the subject of the negro as 
a topic of discussion, I might be somewhat reheved by 
the fact that he dealt exclusively in the subject while he 
was here. I shall, therefore, without much hesitation 
or diffidence, enter upon this subject. 

The American people, on the first day of January, 1854, 
found the African slave-trade prohibited by a law of Con- 
gress. In a majority of the states of this Union, they 
found African slavery, or any other sort of slavery, pro- 
hibited by State Constitutions. They also found a law 
existing, supposed to be valid, by which slavery was exclud- 
ed from almost all the territory the United States then 
owned. This was the condition of the country, with 
reference to the institution of slavery, on the first of Jan- 
uary, 1854, 

A few days after that, a bill was introduced into Con- 
gress, which ran through its regular course in the two 
branches of the National Legislature, and finally passed 
into a law in the month of May, by which the act of 
Congress prohibiting slavery from going into the Terri- 
tories of the United States was repealed. 

In connection with the law itself, and, in fact, in the 
terms of the law, and then existing prohibition was not 
only repealed, but there was a declaration of purpose on 
the part of Congress never thereafter to exercise any 
power that they might have, real or supposed, to prohibit 
the extension or spread of slavery. This was a very great 
change; for the law thus repealed was of more than 
thirty years' standing. Following rapidly upon the heels 
of this action of Congress, a decision of the Supreme 
Court is made, by which it is declared that Congress, if 



THE SITUATION. 2 1/ 

it desires to prohibit the spread of slavery into the terri- 
tories, has no constitutional power to do so. Not only 
so, but that decision lays down principles, which, if 
pushed to their logical conclusion — would decide that the 
Constitutions of free states, forbidding slavery, are them- 
selves unconstitutional. Mark me, I do not say the judge 
said this, and let no man say I affirm the judge used 
these words; but I only say it is my opinion that what 
they did say, if pressed to its logical conclusion, will in- 
evitably result thus. 

Looking at these things, the Republican party, as I un- 
derstand its principles and policy, believe that there is 
great danger of the institution of slavery being spread out 
and extended, until it is ultimately made alike lawful in 
all the states of this Union; so believing, to prevent that 
incidental consummation, is the original and chief 
purpose of the Republican organization. I say ' 'chief 
purpose" of the Republican organization; for it is certain- 
ly true that if the national house shall fall into the hands 
of the Republicans, they will have to attend to all the 
other matters of national housekeepings as well as this. 
The chief and real purpose of the Republican party is 
eminently conservative. It proposes nothing save and 
except to restore this government to its original tone 
in regard to this element of slavery, and there to main- 
tain it, looking for no further change in reference to it, 
than that which the original framers of the government 
themselves expected and looked forward to. 

The chief danger to this purpose of the Republican 
party is not just now the revival of the African slave- 
trade, or the passage of a Congressional slave code, or the 



2l8 LINCOLINS SPEECHES COMPLETE. 

declaring of a second Dred Scott decision, making sla- 
very lawful in all the states. These are not pressing us 
just now. They are not quite ready yet. The anthors of 
these measures know that we are too strong for them; but 
but they will be upon us in due time, and we will be 
grappling with them hand in hand, if they are not now 
headed off. They are not now the chief danger to the 
purpose of the Republican organization; but the most im- 
minent danger that now threatens that purpose is that 
insidious Douglas popular sovereignty. This is 

the miner and sapper. While it does not propose 
to revive the African slave-trade, nor to pass a slave code, 
nor to make a second Dred Scott decision, it is prepar- 
ing us for the onslaught and charge of these uitimate 
enemies when they shall be ready to come on, and the 
word of command for them to advance shall be given. I 
say this Douglas popular sovereignty — for there is a broad 
distinction, as I now understand it, between that article 
and a genuine popular sovereignty. 

GENUINE POPULAR SOVEREIGNTY. 

I believe there is a genuine popular sovereignty. I 
think a definition of genuine popular sovereignty, in the 
abstract, would be about this: 

That each man should do precisely as he pleases with 
himself, and with all those things which exclusively con- 
cern him. Applied to government, this principle would 
be, that a General Government should do all those 
things which pertain to it, and all the local governments 
shall do precisely as they please in respect to those mat- 
ters which exclusively concern them. I understand that 
this government of the United States, under which we 



THE SITUATION. 219 

live is based upon this principle; and I am misunderstood 
if it is supposed that I have any war to make upon that 
principle. 

A FALSE POPULAR SOVEREIGNTY. 

Now what is Judge Douglas's popular sovereignty? 
It is, as a principle, no other than that, if one man 
chooses to make a slave of another man, neither that 
man nor any body else has a right to object. 

Applied in Government, as he seeks to apply it, it is 
this: If, in a new territory into which a few people are 
beginning to enter for the purpose of making their homes, 
they choose to either exclude slavery from their limits, 
or to establish it there, however one or the other may 
affect the persons to be enslaved, or the infinitely greater 
number of persons who are afterward to inhabit that 
territory, or the other members of the families of com- 
munities, of which they are but an incipient member, or 
the general head of the family of states as parent of all 
however their action may affect one or the other of these, 
there is no power or right to interfere. That is Douglas's 
popular suvereignty applied. 

He has a good deal of trouble with popular sovereignty. 
His explanations explanatory of explanations explained 
are interminable. The most lengthy, and, as I suppose, 
the most maturely considered of his long series of explana- 
tions, is his great essay in Harper's Magazine. I will 
not attempt to enter on any very thorough investigation 
of his argument, as there made and presented. I will 
occupy a good portion of your time here in drawing your 
attention to certain points in it. 



220 LINCOLNS SPEECHES COMPLETE. 

THERE IS DANGER. 

Such of you as may have read this document will have 
perceived that the Judge, early in the document, quotes 
from two persons belonging to the Republican party, 
without naming them, but who can readly be recognized 
as being Governor Seward, of New York, and myself. 

It is true, that exactly fiffeen months ago this day, I 
believe, I, for the first time, expressed a sentiment upon 
this subject, and in such a manner that it should get into 
print, that the public might see it beyond the circle of 
my hearers; and my expression of it at that time is the 
quotation that Judge Douglas makes. He has not made 
the quotation with accuracy, but justice to him requires 
me to say that it is sufficiently accurate not to change 
its sense. 

AN ELEMENT OF DISCORD. 

The sense of that quotation condensed is this — that 
this slavery element is a durable element of discord 
among us, and that we shall probably not have perfect 
peace in this country with it, until either it masters the free 
principle in our government, or is so far mastered by the 
free principle as for the public mind to rest in the belief 
that it is going to its end. This sentiment, which I 
now express in this way, was, at no great distance of 
time, perhaps in different language, and in connection 
with some colateral ideas, expressed by Governor Seward. 
Judge Douglas has been so much annoyed by the express- 
ion of the sentiment that he has constantly, I believe, in 
almost all his speeches since it was uttered, been referr- 
to it. I find he alluded to it in his speech here as well 
as in the copy-right essay. 



THE SITUATION. 221 

I do not now enter upon this for the purpose of making an 
elaborate argument to show that we were right in the ex- 
pression of that sentiment. In other w^ords, I shall not 
stop to say all that might properly be said upon this point; 
but I only ask your attention to it for the purpose of 
making one or two points upon it. 

If you will read the copy-right essay, you will discover 
that Judge Douglas himself says a controversy between 
the American colonies and the government of Great 
Britain began on the slavery question in 1699, and con- 
tinued from that time until the revolution; and, while he 
did not say so, we all know that it has continued with 
more or less violence ever since the revolution. 

Then we need not appeal to history, to the declaration 
of the framers of the government, but we know from 
Judge Douglas himself that slavery began to be an ele- 
ment of discord among the wdiite people of this country 
as far back as 1699, or one hundred and sixty years ago, 
or five generations of men — counting thirty years to a 
generation. Now it would seem to me that it might 
have occurred to Judge Douglas, or anybody who had 
turned his attention to these facts, that there was some- 
thing in the nature of that thing, slavery, somewhat 
durable for mischief and discord. 

A TIME OF PEACE, AND WHY.? 

There is another point I desire to make in regard 
to this matter, before I leave it. From the adoption of 
the Constitution down to 1820 is the precise period of 
our history when we had comparative peace upon this 
question — the precise period of time when we came 
nearer to having peace about it than any other time of 



222 LINCOLNS SPEECHES COMPLETE. 

that entire one hundred and sixty years, in which he says 
it began, or of the eighty years of our own Constitution. 
Then it would be worth our while to stop and examine 
into the probable reason of our coming nearer to having 
peace then than at any other time. This was the precise 
period of time in which our fathers adopted, and during 
which they followed, a policy restricting the spread of 
slavery, and the whole Union was acquiescing in it. The 
whole country looked forward to the ultimate extinction 
of the institution. It was when a policy had been adopt- 
ed and was prevailing, which led all just and right-mind- 
ed men to suppose that slavery was gradually coming to 
an end, and that they might be quiet about it. watching 
it as it expired. 

I think Judge Douglas might have preceived that too, 
and whether he did or not, it is worth the attention of 
fair-minded men, here and elsewhere, to consider wheth- 
er that is not the truth of the case. If he had looked at 
these two facts, that this matter has been an element of 
discord for one hundred and sixty years among this 
people, and that the only comparative peace we have 
had about it was when that policy prevailed in this 
government which he now wars upon, he might then, 
perhaps, have been brought to a more just appreciation 
of what I said fifteen months ago — a house divided 
against itself can not stand. 

" I DO NOT EXPECT THE UNION TO DISSOLVE." 

I believe that this government can not endure per- 
manently half slave and half free. I do not expect the 
house to fall. I do not expect the Union to dissolve; 



THE SITUATION. 22 3 

but I do expect it will cease to be divided. It will be- 
come all one thing or all the other. Either the oppo- 
nents of slavery will arrest the further spread of it, and 
place it where the public mind will rest in the belief that 
it is in the course of ultimate extinction; or its advocates 
will push it forward, until it shall become alike lawful 
in all its states, old as well as new. North as well as 
South. That was my sentiment at that time. In con- 
nection with it, I said, "We are now far into the fifth 
year, since a policy was inaugurated with the avowed 
object and confident promise of putting an end to slavery 
agitation, Under the operation of the policy, that agita- 
tion has not ceased, but has constantly augmented." 

I now say to you here that we are advanced still fur- 
ther into the sixth year since that policy of Judge Doug- 
las — that popular sovereignty of his, for quieting the 
slavery question — was made the national policy. Fifteen 
months more have been added since I uttered that senti- 
ment, and I call upon you, and all other right-minded 
men, to say whether that fifteen months have belied or 
corroborated my words. 

Whlie I am here upon this subject, I cannot but ex- 
press gratitude that this true view of this element of dis- 
cord among us — as I believe it is — is attracting more 
and more attention. I do not believe, that Governor 
Seward uttered that sentiment because I had done so be- 
fore, but because he reflected upon this subject, and saw 
the truth of it. Nor do I believe, because Governor 
Seward or I uttered it, that Mr. Hickman, of Pennsyl- 
vania, in different language, since that time, has declar- 
ed his belief in the utter antagonism which exists be- 



224 LINCOLNS SPEECHES COMPLETE. 

tween the principles of liberty and slavery. You see we 
are multiplying. 

"THREE CHEERS FOR HICKMAN." 

Now, while I am speaking of Hickman, let me say, I 
khow but little about him. I have never seen him, and 
know scarcely anything about the man; but I will say 
this much of him: Of all the anti-Lecompton Democracy 
that have been brought to my notice, he alone has the 
true, genuine ring of the metal. And now, without in- 
dorsing anything else he has said, I will ask this audi- 
ence to give three cheers for Hickman. (The audience 
responded with three rousing cheers for Hickman.) 

Another point in the copy-right essay to which I would 
ask your attention, is rather a feature to be extracted 
from the whole thing, than from any express declara- 
tion of it at any point. It is a general feature of that 
document, and indeed, of all of Judge Douglas's discuss- 
ions of this question, that the territories of the United 
States, and the states of this Union, are exactly alike — 
that there is no difference between them at all — that the 
Constitution applies to the territories precisely as it 
does to the states — and that the United States Govern- 
ment, under the Constitution, may not do in a state what 
it may do in a territory. Gentlemen, is that a true view 
of the case.-^ It is necessary for this squatter sovereignty; 
but is it true.^ 

THE STATE VS. THE TERRITORY. 

Let us consider. What does it depend upon.? It de- 
pends altogether upon the position that the State must, 
without the interference of the General Government do 
all those things that pertain exclusively to themselves — - 



THE SITUATION. 22 5 

that are local in their nature, that have no connection 
with the General Government. After Judge Douglas 
has established this proposition, which nobody disputes 
or ever has disputed, he proceeds to assume, without 
proving it, that slavery is one of those little, unimpor- 
tant, trivial matters which are of just about as much 
consequence as the question would be to me, whether 
my neighbor should raise horned cattle or plant tobacco; 
that there is no moral question about it, but that it is 
altogether a matter of dollars and cents; that when a 
new territory is opened for settlement, the first man who 
goes into it may plant there a thing which, like the 
Canada thistle or some other of those pets of the soil 
can not be dug out by the millions of men who will 
come thereafter; that it is one of those little things that is 
so trivial in its nature that it has no effect upon anybody 
save the few men who first plant upon the soil; that it is 
not a thing which in any way affects the family of com- 
munities composing these state's, nor any way endangeres 
the General Government. Judge Douglas ignores al- 
together the very well known fact, that we have never 
had a serious menace to our political existence, except 
to spring from this thing, which he chooses to regard as 
only upon a par with onions and potatoes. 

ANOTHER VIEW OF IT. 

Turn it and contemplate it in another view. He says 
that according to his popular sovereignty, the General 
Government may give to the territories governors, judges, 
marshals, secretaries, and all the other chief men to 
govern them, but the}'^ must not touch upon this other 
question. Why.^ The question of who shall be governor 



226 LINCOLNS SPEECHES COMPLETE. 

of a territory for a year or two, and pass away, without 
his track being left upon the soil, or an act which he did 
for good or for evil being left behind, is a question of 
vast national magnitude. It is so much opposed^ in its 
nature to locality, that the nation itself must decide it; 
while this other matter of planting slavery upon a soil — 
a thing which once planted can not be eradicated by the 
succeeding millions who have as much right there as the 
first comers, or if eradicated, not without infinite difficulty 
and a long struggle — he considers the power to prohibit 
it as one of these little, local, trivial things, that the 
nation ought not to say a word about; that it affects no- 
body save the few men who are there. 

Take these two things and consider them together; 
present the question of planting a state with the institu- 
tion of slavery by the side of a question of who shall be 
governor of Kansas for a year or two, and is there a man 
here — is there a man on earth — who would not say the 
governor question is the little one, and the slavery ques- 
tion is the great one.? I ask any honest Democrat if the 
small, the local, and the trivial and temporary question 
is not, who shall be governor.? While the durable, the 
important and the mischievous one is, shall this soil be 
planted with slavery.? 

This is an idea, I suppose, which has arisen in Judge 
Douglas's mind from his peculiar structure. I suppose 
the institution of slavery really looks small to him. He 
is so put up by nature that a lash upon his back would 
hurt him, but a lash upon anybody else's back does not 
hurt him. That is the build of the man, and consequent- 
ly he looks upon the matter of slavery in this unimpor- 
tant light. 



THE SITUATION. 22/ 

"I TREMDLE FOR MY COUNTRY WHEN I REMEMBER 
THAT GOD IS JUST." 

Judge Douglas ought to remember when he is en- 
deavoring to force this poHcy upon the American people 
that while he is put up in that way a good many are not. 
He ought to remember that there was once in this 
country a man by the name of Thomas Jefferson, sup- 
posed to be a Democrat — a man whose principles and 
policy are not very prevalent among Democrats to-day, 
it is true; but that man did not take exactly this view of 
the insignificance of the element of slavery which our 
friend Judge Douglas does. In contemplation of this 
thing, we all know he was led to exclaim: "I tremble 
for my country when I remember that God is just!" 
We know how he looked upon it when he thus expressed 
himself. There is danger to this country — danger of 
the avenging justice of God in that little unimportant 
popular sovereignty question of Judge Douglas. He sup- 
posed there was a question of God's eternal justice wrap- 
ed up in the enslaving of any race of men, or any man, 
and that those who did so, braved the arm of Jehovah — 
that when a nation thus dared the Almighty, every friend 
of that nation had cause to dread his wrath. Choose 
ye between Jefferson and Douglas as to what is the true 
view of this element among us." 

ANOTHER LITTLE DIFFICULTY. 

There is another little difficulty about this matter of 
treating the territories and states alike in all things, to 
which I ask your attention, and I shall leave this branch 
of the case. If there is no difference between them, why 
not make the territories states at once.? What is the 



228 Lincoln's speeches complete. 

reason that Kansas was not fit to come into the Union 
when it was organized into a territory, in Judge Doug- 
las's view? Can any of you tell any reason why it should 
not have come into the Union at once? They are fit, as 
he thinks, to decide upon the slavery question — the 
largest and most important with which they could pos- 
sibly deal — what could they do by coming into the 
Union that they are not fit to do, according to his view, 
by staying out of it? O, they are not fit to sit in Con- 
gress and decide upon the rates of postage, or questions 
of ad valorem or specific duties on foreign goods, or live 
oak timber contracts; they are not fit to decide these 
vastly important matters, which are national in their 
import, but they are fit, "from the jump," to decide 
this little negro question. But, gentlemen, the case is 
too plain; I occupy too much time on this head, and I 
pass on. 

DOUGLAS '-KICKING THE FAT INTO THE FIRE." 

Near the close of the copy-right essay, the Judge, I 
think, comes very near kicking his own fat into the fire. 
I did not think, when I commenced these remarks, that 
I would read from that article, but I now believe I will: 

"This exposition of the history of these measures, 
shows conclusively that the authors of the Compromise 
Measures of 1850 and of the Kansas-Nebraska act of 
1854, as well as the members of the Continental Con- 
gress of 1774, and the founders of our system of govern- 
ment subsequent to the Revolution, regarded the people 
of the territories and colonies as political communities, 
which were entitled to a free and exclusive power of legis- 
lation in their provisional Legislatures, where their re- 



THE SITUATION. 229 

presentation could alone be preserved, in all cases of tax- 
ation and internal polity." 

When the judge saw that putting in the word ''slav- 
ery" would contradict his own history, he put in what 
he knew would pass as synonymous with it: ''internal 
polity." Whenever we find that in one of his speeches, 
the substitnte is used in this manner; and I can tell you 
the reason. It would be too bald a contradiction to 
say slavery, but ' 'internal polity" is a general phrase, 
which would pass in some quarters, and which he hopes 
will pass with the reading community for the same thing: 

' 'This right pertains to the people collectively, as a law- 
abiding and peaceful community, and not in the isolated 
individuals who may wander upon the public domain in 
violation of the law. It can only be exercised where 
there are inhabitants sufficient to constitute a govern- 
ment, and capable of performing its various functions and 
duties, a fact to be ascertained and determined by" — who 
do you think.^ Judge Douglas says, "By Congress!" 

"Whatever the number shall be fixed at ten, fitteen, or 
twenty thousand inhabitants, does not effect the prin- 
ciple." 

A FEW VALUABLE COMMENTS. 

Now I have only a few comments to make. Popular 
sovereignty, by his own words, does not pertain to the 
few persons who wander upon the public domain in viola- 
tion of law. We have his words for that. When it 
does pertain to them, is when they are sufficient to be 
formed into an organized political community, and he 
fixes the minimum for that 10,000, and the maximum 
at 20,000. Now I would like to know what is to be 



230 Lincoln's speeches complete. 

done with the 9,000? Are they all to be treated, until 

they are large enough to be organized into a political 
community, as wanderers upon the public land in viola- 
tion of law? And if so treated and driven out, at what 
point of time would there ever be ten thousand? If they 
were not driven out; but remained there as trespassers 
upon the public land in violation of the law, can they 
establish slavery there? No — the judge says popular 
sovereignty don't pertain to them then. Can they ex- 
clude it then? No, popular sovereignty don't pertain to 
them then. I would like to know, in the case covered 
by the essa}^ what condition the people of the territory 
are in before they reach the number of ten thousand? 

WHAT THE ' 'DASH OF A PEN" CAN DO. 

But the main point I wish to ask attention to is, that 
the question as to when they shall have reached a suffi- 
cient number to be formed into a regular organized com- 
munity, is to be decided "by Congress." Judge Douglas' 
says so. Well, gentleman, that is about all we want. 
No, that is all the Southerners want. That is what all 
those who are for slavery want. They do not want Con- 
gress to prohibit slavery from coming into the new terri- 
tories, and they do not want popular sovereignty to hin- 
der it: and as Congress is to say when they are ready to 
be organized, all that the South has to do is to get Con- 
gress to hold off. Let Congress hold off until they are 
ready to be admitted as a state, and the South has all it 
wants in taking slavery into and planting it in all the 
territories that we now have, or hereafter may have. In 
a word, the whole thing, at a dash of the pen, is at last 
put in the power of Congress; for if they do not have 



THE SITUATION. 23 I 

this popular sovereignty until Congress organizes them, 
I ask if it at last does not come from Congress? If, at 
last, it amounts to anything at all. Congress gives it to 
them. I submit this rather for your reflection than for 
comment. 

After all that is said, at last, by a dash of the pen, 
everything that has gone before is undone, and he put's 
the whole question under the control of Congress. After 
fighting through more than three hours, if you undertake 
to read it, he at last places the whole matter under the 
control of that power which he had been contending 
against, and arrives at a result directly contrary to what 
he had been laboring to do. He at last leaves the whole 
matter to the control of Congress. 

THE TWO POINTS IN THE HARPER MAGAZINE ESSAY. 

There are two main objects, as I understand it, of this 
Harper's Magazine essay. One was to show, if possible 
that the men of our Revolutionary times were in favor 
of his popular sovereignty; and the other was to show that 
the Dred Scott decision had not entirely squelched out 
this popular sovereignty. 

I do not propose, in regard to this argument drawn 
from the history of former times, to enter into a detailed 
examination of the historical statements he had made. I 
have the impression that they are inaccurate in a great 
many instances. Sometimes in positive statement, but 
very much more inaccurate by the suppression of state- 
ments that realty belong to the history. But I do not 
propose to affirm that this is so to any very great extent; or 
to enter into a very minute examination of his historical 
statements. I avoid doing so upon this principle — that if 



232 LLNCOLN S SPEECHES COMPLETE. 

it were important for me to pass out of this lot in the 
least period of time possible, and I came to that fence and 
saw by a calculation of my known strength and agility that 
I could clear it at a bound, it would be folly for me to stop 
and consider whether I could or not crawl through a 
crack. So I say of the whole history, contained in his 
essay, where he endeavored to link the men of the Rev- 
olution to popular sovereignty. It only requires an effort 
to leap out of it — a single bound to be entirely suc- 
cessful. 

If you read it over, you will find that he quotes here 
and there from documents of the Revolutionary times, 
tending to show that the people ot the colonies were 
desirous of regulating their own concerns in their own 
way; that the British Government should not interfere; 
that at one time they struggled with the British Govern- 
ment to be permitted to exclude the African slave-trade; 
if not directly, to be permitted to exclude it indirectly 
by taxation sufficient to discourage and destroy it- 
From these and many things of this sort. Judge Douglas 
argues that they were in favor of the people of our own 
territories excluding slavery if they wanted to, or planting 
it there if they wanted to, doing just as they pleased from 
the time they settled upon the territory. 

Now, however his history may apply, and whatever of 
his arguments there may be that is sound and accurate or 
unsound and inaccurate, if we can find out what these 
men did themselves do upon this very question of slavery 
in the territories, does it not end the whole thing.^ If 
after all this labor and effort to show that the men of the 
Revolution were in favor of his popular sovereignty and 



THE SITUATION. 233 

his mode of dealing with slavery in the territories, we 
can show that these very men took hold of that subject, 
and dealt with it; we can see for ourselves how they 
dealt with it. It is not an argument or inference, but we 
know what they thought about it. 

AN IMPORTANT OMISSION. 

It is precisely upon that part of the history of the 
country, that one important omission is made by Judge 
Douglas. He selects parts of the history of the United 
States upon the subject of slavery, and treats it as the 
whole, omitting from his historical sketch the legislation 
of Congress in regard to the admission of Missouri, by 
which ■ the Missouri Compromise w^as established, and 
slavery excluded from a country half as large as the pres- 
ent United States. All this is left out of his history, and 
in nowise alluded to by him; so far as I can remember, 
save once, when he makes a remark, that upon his prin- 
ciple the Supreme Court were authorized to pronounce 
a decision that the act called the Missouri Compromise 
was unconstitutional. All that history has been left out. 
But this part of the history of the country was not made 
by the men of the Revolution. 

SOMETHING ABOUT THE "ORDINANCE OF '87." 

There was another part- of our political history made 
by the very men who were the actors in the Revolution, 
which has taken the name of the ordinance of '87. Let 
me bring that history to your attention. In 1784, I 
believe, this same Mr. Jeffersc^ drew up an ordinance 
for the government of the country, upon which we now 
stand; or rather, a frame or draft of an ordinance for the 
government of this country, here in Ohio, our neighbors 



234 LINCOLN'S SPEECHES COMPLETE. 

in Indiana, us who live in Illinois, our neighbors in 
Wisconsin, and Michigan. In that ordinance, drawn up 
not only for the government of that territory, but for 
the territories south of the Ohio River, Mr. Jefferson ex- 
pressly provided for the prohibition of slavery. Judge 
Douglas says, and perhaps is right, that that provision 
was lost from that ordinance. I believe that is true. 
When the vote was taken upon it, a majority of all 
present in the Congress of the Confederation voted for it; 
but there were so many absentees that those voting for 
it did not make the clear majority necessary, and it was 
lost. 

now OHIO, INDIANA, ILLINOIS, MICHIGAN AND WISCONSIN 
WERE ADMITTED INTO THE UNION. 

But three years after that, the Congress of the Con- 
federation were together again, and they adopted a new 
ordinance for the government of this Northwest Territory, 
not contemplating territory south of the river, for the 
states owning that territory had hitherto refrained from 
giving it to the General Government; hence, they made 
the ordinance to apply only to what the Government 
owned. In that, the provision excluding slavery was 
inserted and passed unanimously, or at any rate it passed 
and became a part of the law of the land. 

Under that ordinance we live. First here in Ohio you 
were a territory, then an enabling act was passed, au- 
thorizing you to form a Constitution and State Govern- 
ment, providing it was republican and not in conflict 
with the ordinance of 'Sy. When you framed your Con- 
stitution and presented it for admission, I think you will 
find the legislation upon the subiect will show that: 



THE SITUATION. 235 

* 'Whereas you had formed a Constitution that was re- 
publican, and not in conflict with the ordinance of '87," 
therefore, you were admitted upon equal footing with the 
original states. The same process in a few years was 
gone through with in Indiana, and so with Illinois, and 
the same substantially with Michigan and Wisconsin. 

Not only did that ordinance prevail, but it was con- 
stantly looked to whenever a step was taken by a new 
territory to become a state. Congress always turned 
their attention to it, and in all their movements upon 
this subject, they traced their course by that ordinance 
of '87. When they admitted new states, they advertised 
them of this ordinance as a part of the legislation of the 
country. They did so because they had traced the ordi- 
nance of '87 throughout the history of this country. Be- 
gin with the men of the Revolution, and go down for 
sixty entire years, and until the last scrap of that terri- 
tory comes into the Union in the form of the State of 
Wisconsin — everything was made to conform with the 
ordinance of '87, excluding slavery from that vast extent 
of country. 

THE CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES. 

I omitted to mention in the right place that the Con- 
stitution of the United States was in process of being 
framed when that ordinance was made by the Congress 
of the Confederation; and one of the first acts of Con- 
gress itself, under the new Constitution itself, was to 
give force to that ordinance by putting power to carry 
it out in the hands of the new officers under the Con- 
stitution, in the place of the old ones, who had been 
legislated out of existence by the change in the Govern- 



236 LINCOLN'S SPEECHES COMPLETE. 

ment from the Confederation to the Constitution. Not 
only so, but I beheve Indiana once or twice, if not Ohio, 
petitioned the General Government for the privilege of 
suspendfng that provision and allowing them to have 
slaves. A report made by Mr. Randolph of Virginia, 
himself a slaveholder, was directly against it, and the 
action was to refuse them the privilege of violating the 
ordinance of 'Sy. 

This period of history, which I have run over briefly, 
is, I presume, as familiar to most of this assembly as any 
other part of the history of our country. I suppose that 
few of my hearers are not as familiar with that part of 
history as I am, and I only mention it to recall your at- 
tention to it at this time. And hence I ask how extra- 
ordinary a thing it is that a man who has occupied a po- 
sition upon the floor of the Senate of the United States, 
who is now in his third term, and who looks to see the 
government of this whole country fall into his own hands, 
pretending to give a truthful and accurate history of the 
slavery question in this country, should so entirely ignore 
the whole of that portion of our history — the most im- 
portant of all. Is it not a most extraordinary spectacle, 
that a man should stand up and ask for any confidence 
in his statements, who sets out as he does with portions 
of history, calling upon the people to believe that it is a 
true and fair representation, when the leading part, and 
controlling feature, ot the whole history is carefully sup- 
pressed.* 

THE REVOLUTIONARY HEROES CLING TO FREEDOM. 

But the mere leaving out is not the most remarkable 
feature of this most remarkable essay. His proposition 



THE SITUATION. 237 

is to establish that the leading men of the Revolution 
were for his great principle of non-intervention by the 
government in the question of slavery in the territories; 
while history shows that they decided in the cases ac- 
tually brought before them, in exactly the contrary way, 
and he knows it. Not only did they so decide at that 
time, but they stuck to it during sixty years, through 
thick and thin, as long as there was one of the Revolu- 
tionary heroes upon the stage of political action. Through 
their whole course, from first to last, they clung to free- 
dom. 

And now he asks the community to believe that the 
men of the Revolution were in favor of his great princi- 
ple, when we have the naked history that they themselves 
dealt with this very subject-matter of his principle, and 
utterly repudiated his principle, acting upon a precisely 
contrary ground. It is as impudent and absurd as if a 
prosecuting attorney should stand up before a jury, and 
ask them to convict A as the murderer of B while B was 
walking alive before them. 

FIRING AT DOUGLAS. 

I say, again, if Judge Douglas asserts that the men of 
the Revolution acted upon principles by which, to be con- 
sistent with themselves, they ought to have adopted his 
popular sovereignty, then, upon a consideration of his 
own argument, he had a right to make you believe that 
they understood the principles of government, but mis- 
applied them — that he has arisen to enlighten the world 
as to the just application of this principle. He has a 
right to try to persuade you that he understands their 
principles better than they did, and, therefore, he will 



238 Lincoln's speeches complete. 

apply them now, not as they did, but as they ought to 
have done. He has a right to go before the community, 
and try to convince them of this; but he has no right to 
attempt to impose upon any one the behef that these 
men themselves approved of his great principle. There 
are two ways of establishing a proposition. One is by 
trying to demonstrate it upon reason; and the other is, 
to show that great men in former times have thought so 
and so, and thus to pass it by the weight of pure 
authority. 

Now, if Judge Douglas will demonstrate somehow that 
this is popular sovereignty — the right of one man to 
make a slave of another, without any right in that other, 
or any one else to object — demonstrate it as Euclid dem- 
onstrated propositions — there is no objection. But when 
he comes forward, seeking to carry a principle by bring- 
ing to it the authority of men who themselves utterly re- 
pudiate that principle, I ask that he shall not be permit- 
ted to do it. 

A RIFLE SHOT. 

I see, in the judge's speech here, a short sentence in 
these words: "Our fathers, when they formed this gov- 
ernment under which we live, understood this question 
just as well and even better than we do now." That is 
true; I stick to that. I will stand by Judge Douglas in 
that to the bitter end. 

And now, Judge Douglas; come and stand by me, and 
truthfully show how they acted, understanding it better 
than we do. All I ask of you. Judge Douglas, is to stick 
to the proposition that the men of the Revolution under- 
stood this subject better than we do now, and with that 



THE SITUATION. 239 

better understanding they acted better than you are try. 
ing to act now. 

I wish to say something now in regard to the Dred 
Scott decision, as dealt by Judge Douglas. In that 
"memorable debate" between Judge Douglas and myself, 
last year, the judge thought fit to commence a process 
of catechising me, and at Freeport I answered his ques- 
tions, and propounding some to him. Among others pro-' 
pounded to him was one that I have here now. The 
substance, as I remember it, is, ''Can the people of a 
United States territory, under the Dred Scott decision, 
in any lawful way, against the wish of any citizen of the 
United States, exclude slavery from its limits, prior to 
the formation of a State Constitution. !*" 

He answered that they could lawfully exclude slavery 
from the United States territories, notwithstanding the 
Dred Scott decision; There was something about that 
answer that has propably been a trouble to the judge ever 
since. 

A PARADOX. 

The Dred Scott decision expressly gives ever citizen 
of the United States a right to carry his slaves into the 
United States territories. And now there was some in- 
consistency in saying that the decision was right, and 
saying, too, that the people of the territory could law- 
fully drive slavery out again. When all the trash, the 
words, the collateral matter, was cleared away from it — 
all the chaff was fanned out of it, it was a bare absurd- 
ity — no less than that a thing may be lawfully driven 
away from where it has a lawful right to be. Clear it of 
all the verbiage, and that is the naked truth of his pro- 



240 LINCOLN S SPEECHES COMPLETE. 

position — that a thing may be lawfully driven from the 
place where it has a lawful right to stay. 

Well, it was because the judge couldn't help seeing 
this, that he has had so much trouble with it; and what 
I want to ask your especial attention to, just now, is to 
remind you, if you have not noticed the fact, that the 
judge does not any longer say that the people can ex- 
clude slavery. He does not say so in the copy-right 
essay; he did not say so in the speech that he made here; 
and, so far as I know, since his re-election to the Senate, 
he has never said, as he did at Freeport, that the people 
of the territories can exclude slavery. He desires that 
you, who wish the territories to remain free, should be- 
lieve that he stands by that position, but he does not 
say it himself. He escapes, to some extent, the absurd 
position I have stated, by changing his language entirely. 

MAKING THE MOST MONEY OUT OF THE OLD HORSE. 

What he says now, is something different in language, 
and we will consider whether it is not different in sense, 
too. It is now that the Dred Scott decision, or rather 
the Constitution under that decision, does not carry 
slavery into the territories beyond the power of the peo- 
ple of the territories to control it as other property. He 
does not say the people can drive it out, but tbey can 
control it as other property. The language is different; 
we should consider whether the sense is different. Driv- 
ing a horse out of this lot is too plain a proposition to 
be mistaken about; it is putting him on the other, side of 
the fence. Or it might be a sort of exclusion of him 
from the lot if you were to kill him, and let the worms 
devour him; but neither of these things is the same as 



THE SITUATION. 24I 

' 'controlliug him as Other property." That would be to 
feed him, to pamper him, to ride him, to use and abuse 
him, to make the most money out of him ' 'as other prop- 
erty;" but, please you, what do the men who are in favor 
of slavery want more than this.? What do they really 
want, other than that slavery, being in the territories, 
shall be controlled as other property.? 

SQUINTING. 

If they want anything else, I do not comprehend it. 
I ask your attention to this— first, for the purpose of 
pointing out the change of ground the judge has made, 
and, in the second place, the importance of the change 

that that change is not such as to give you gentlemen 

who want his popular sovereignty the power to exclude 
the institution or drive it out at all. I know the judge 
sometimes squints at the argument that in controlling it 
as ether property, by unfriendly legislation, they may 
control it to death, as you might in the case of a horse, 
perhaps, feed him so lightly and ride him so much that 
he would die. But when you come to legislative control, 
there is something more to be attended to. I have no 
doubt, myself, that if the territories should undertake to 
control slave property as other property — that is, control 
it in such a way that it would be the most valuable as 
property, and make it bear its just proportion in the way 
of burdens as property— really deal with it as property— 
the Supreme Court of the United States will say, '*God 
speed you, and amen." 

But I undertake to give the opinion, at least, that if 
the. territories attempt, by any direct legislation, to drive 
the man, with his slave, out of the territory, or to decide 



242 Lincoln's speeches complete. 

that his slave is free because of his being taken in there, 
or to tax him to such an extent that he cannot keep him 
there, the Supreme Court will unhesingtatingly decide 
all such legislation unconstitutional, as long as that Su- 
preme Court is constructed as the Dred Scott Supreme 
Court is. The first two thingsthey have already decided, 
except that there is a little quibble among the lawyers 
between the word dicta and decision. They have al- 
ready decided a negro can not be made free by territorial 
legislation. 

What is that Dred Scott decision.^* Judge Douglas 
labors to show that it is one thing, while I think it is 
altogether different. It is a long opinion, but it is all 
embodied in this short statement: "The Constitution 
of the United States forbids Congress to deprive a man 
of his property, without due process of law; the right 
of property in slaves is distinctly and expressly affirmed 
in that Constitution; therefore if Congress shall under- 
take to say that a man's slave is no longer his slave, 
when he crosses a certain line into a territory, that is 
depriving him of his property without due process of 
law, and is unconstitutional." There is the whole Dred 
Scott decision. They add that if Congress can not do 
so itself, Congress can not confer any power to do so, and 
hence any effort by the Territorial Legislature to do 
either of these things is absolutely decided against. It 
is a foregone conclusion by that court. 

Now, as to this indirect mode by ' 'unfriendly legisla- 
tion," all lawyers here will readily understand that such 
a proposition can not be tolerated for a moment, be- 
cause a Legislature cannot indirectly do that which it 



THE SITUATION. 243 

can not accomplish directly. Then I say any legisla- 
tion to control this property, as property, for its benefit 
as property, would be hailed by this Dred Scott Supreme 
Court, and fully sustained; but any legislation driving 
slave property out, or destroying it as propert}', directly 
or indirectly, will most assurdely, by that court, be held 
unconstitational. 

CONSTITUTIONAL POWDERS. 

Judge Douglas says if the Constitution carries slavery 
into the territories beyond the power of the people of 
the territories to control it as other property, then it fol- 
lows logically that everyone who swears to support the 
Constitution of the United States, must give that sup- 
port to that property which it needs. And if the Con- 
stitution carries slavery into the territories, beyond the 
power of the people to control it as other property, then 
it also carries it into the states, because the Constitution 
is the supreme law of the land. Now, gentlemen, if it 
were not for my excessive modesty I would say that I 
told that very thing to Judge Douglas quite a year ago. 
This argument is here in print, and if it were not for 
my modesty, as I said, I might call your attention to 
it.^ If you read it, you will find that I not only made 
that argument, but made it better than he has made it 
since. 

There is, however, this difference. I say now, and 
said then, there is no sort of question that the Supreme 
Court has decided that it is the right of the slaveholder 
to take his slave and hold him in the territory; and say- 
ing this. Judge Douglas himself admits the conclusion. 
He says if that is so, this consequence will foUow; and 



244 LINCOLNS SPEECHES COMPLETE. 

because this consequence would follow, his argument is, 
the decision can not, therefore, be that way — "that 
would spoil my popular sovereignty, and it can not be 
possible that this great principle has been squelched out 
in this extraordinary way. It might be, if it were not 
for the extraordinary consequences«of spoiling my hum- 
bug." 

ANOTHER VIEW. 

Another feature of the Judge's argument about the Dred 
Scott case is, an effort to show that that decision deals 
altogether in declarations of negatives; that the Constitu- 
tion does not affirm anything as expounded by the Dred 
Scott decision, but it only declares a want of power — 
a total absence of power, in reference to the territories. 
It seems to be his purpose to make the whole of that 
decision to result in a mere negative declaration of a 
want of power in Congress to do anything in relation to 
this matter in the territories. I know the opinion of 
the judges states there is a total absence of power; but 
that is, unfortunately, not all it states; for the judges add 
that the right of property in a slave is distinctl}^ and ex- 
pressly affirmed in the Constitution. It does not stop at 
saying that the right of property in a slave is recognized 
in the Constitution, is declared to exist somewhere in 
the Constitution, but says it is affirmed in the Constitu- 
tion. Its language is equivalent to saying that it is em- 
bodied and so woven into that instrument that it can 
not be detached without breaking the Constitution itself. 
In a word, it is a part of the Constitution. 

Douglas is singularly unfortunate in his effort to make 
out that decision to be altogether negative, when the 



THE SITUATION. 245 

express language at the vital part is that this is distinctly 
affirmed in the Constitution. I think myself, and I re- 
peat it here, that this decision does not merely carry 
slavery into the territories, but by its logical conclusion 
it carries it into the states in which we live. One pro- 
vision of that Constitution is, that it shall be the supreme 
law of the land — I do not quote the language — any Con- 
stitution or law of any state to the contrary notwith- 
standing. This Dred Scott decision says that the right 
of property in a slave is affirmed in that Constitution, 
which is the supreme law of the land, any state Constitu- 
tion or law notwithstanding. Then I say that to destroy 
a thing which is distinctly affirmed and supported by the 
supreme law of the land, even by a State Constitution or 
law, is a violation of that supreme law, and there is no 
escape from it. In my judgment there is no avoi,ding that 
result, save the people see that Constitutions are bet- 
ter construed than our Constitution is construed in that 
decision. They must take care that it is more faithfully 
and truly carried out than it is there expounded. 

I must hasten to a conclusion. Near the beginning 
of my remarks, I said that this insidious Douglas popular 
sovereignty is the measure that now threatens the pur- 
pose of the Republican party, to prevent slavery from 
being nationalized in the United States. I propose to 
ask your attention for a little while to some propositions 
in affirmance of that statement. Take it just as it 
stands, and apply it as a principle; extend and apply that 
principle elsewhere, and consider where it will lead you. 

I now put this proposition, that Judge Douglas's pop- 
ular sovereignty applied will reopen the African slave 



u 



246 Lincoln's speeches complete. 

rade; and will demonstrate it by any variety of ways 
in which you can turn the subject or look at it. 

The Judge says that the people of the territories have 
the right, by his principle, to have slaves, if they want 
them. Then I say that the people in Georgia have the 
right to buy slaves in Africa, if they want them, and I 
defy any man on earth to show any distinction between 
the two things — to show that the one is either more 
wicked or more unlawful; to show, on original principles, 
that one is better or worse than the other; or to show by 
the Constitution, that one differs a whit from the other. 
He will tell me, doubtless, that there is no Constitutional 
provision against people taking slaves into the new ter- 
ritories, and I tell him that there is equally Constitutional 
provision against buying slaves in Africa. He will tell 
you that a people, in the exercise of popular sovereignty, 
ought to do as they please about that thing, and have 
slaves if they want them; and I tell you that the people 
of Georgia are as much entitled to popular sovereignty 
and to buy slaves in Africa, if they want them, as the 
people of the territory are to have slaves if they want 
them. I ask any man, dealing honestly with himself, to 
point out a distinction. 

"I DENY it" says LINCOLN. 

I have recently seen a letter of Judge Douglas's in 
which, without stating that to be the object, he doubt- 
less endeavors to make a distinction between the two. 
He says he is unalterably opposed to the repeal of the 
laws against the African slave-trade. And why.^ He 
then seeks to give a reason that would not apply to his 
popular sovereignty in the territories. What is that 



THE SITUATION. 247 

reason? "The abolition of the African slave-trade is a 
compromise of the Constitution!" I den} it. There is 
no truth in the proposition that the abolition of the 
African slave-trade is a compromise of the Constitution. 
No man can put his finger on anything in the Constitu- 
tion, or on the line of history, w^hich shows it. It is a 
mere barren assertion, made simply for the purpose of 
getting up a distinction between the revival of the African 
slave-trade and his "great principle." 

At the time the Constitution of the United States was 
adopted, it was expected that the slave-trade would be 
abolished. I should assert, and insist upon that, if Judge 
Douglas denied it. But I know that it was equally ex- 
pected that slavery would be excluded from the teritor- 
ies, and I can show by history, that in regard to these 
two things, public opinion was exactly alike, while in 
regard to positive action, there was more done in the 
ordinance of "^"j to resist the spread of slavery than was 
ever done to abolish the foreign slave-trade. Lest I 
be misunderstood, I say again, that at the time of the 
formation of the Constitution, public expectation was 
that the slave-trade would be abolished, but no more so 
than the spread of slavery in the territories should be 
restrained. They stand alike, except that in the ordi- 
nance of '^y there was a mark left by public opinion, 
showing that it was more committed against the spread 
of slavery in the territories than against the foreign slave- 
trade. 

"NO COMPROMISE." 

Compromise! What word of compromise was there 
about it? Why, the public sense was then in favor of 



248 Lincoln's speeches complete. 

the abolition of the slave-trade; but there was, at the 
time, a very great commercial interest involved in it, 
and extensive capital in the branch of trade. Theie 
w^ere, doubtless, the incipient stages of improvement in 
the South in the way of farming, dependent on the 
slave-trade, and they made a proposition to Congress to 
abolish the trade after allowing it twenty years, a suffici- 
ent time for the capital and commerce engaged in it to 
be transferred to other channels: They made no provis- 
ion that it should be abolished in twenty years; I do not 
doubt that they expected it would be; but they made no 
bargain about it. The public sentiment left no doubt in 
the minds of any that it would be done away. I repeat, 
there is nothing in the history of those times in favor of 
that matter being a compromise of the Constitution. It 
was the public expectation at the time, manifested in a 
thousand ways, that the spread of slavery should also be 
restricted. 

Then, I say, if this principle is established, that there 
is no wrong in slavery and whoever wants it has a right 
to have it, is a matter of dollars and cents, a sort of 
question as to how they shall deal with brutes, that 
between us and the negro here, there is no sort of ques- 
tion, but at the South the question is between negro and 
crocodile. That is all. It is a mere matter of policy; there 
is a perfect right according to interest to do just as you 
please — when this is done, where this doctrine prevails, 
the miners and sappers will have formed public opinion 
for the slave-trade. They will be ready for Jeff. Davis, 
and Stephens, and other leaders of that company, to 
sound the bugle for the revival of the slave-trade, for the 



THE SITUATION. 249 

second Dred Scott decision, for the flood of slavery to 
be poured over the free states, while we shall be here 
tied down, and helpless, and run over like sheep. 

It is to be a part and parcel of this same idea, to say 
to men who want to adhere to the Democratic party, 
who have always belonged to that party, and are only 
looking about for some excuse to stick to it, but never- 
theless hate slavery, that Douglas's popular sovereignty 
is as good a way as any to oppose slavery. They allow 
themselves to be persuaded easily in accordance with their 
previous dispositions, into this belief, that it is about as 
good a way of opposing slavery as any, and we can do 
that wtihout straining our old party ties or breaking up 
old political associations. We can do so without being 
called negro-worshipers. We can do that without 
being subjected to the jibes and sneers that are so readi- 
ly thrown out in place of argument where no argument 
can be found. So let us stick to this popular 
sovereignty — this insidious popular sovereignty. 

Now let me call your attention to one thing that has 
really happened, which shows this gradual and steady 
debauching of puplic opinion, this course of preparation 
for the revival of the slave-trade, for the territorial slave 
code, and the new Dred Scott decision that is to carry 
slavery into the free states. Did you ever, five years 
ago, hear of anybody in the world saying that the negro 
had no share in the Declaration of National In- 
dependence; that it did not mean negroes at all; and 
when *'all men" were spoken of, negroes were not includ- 
ed.? I am satisfied that, five years ago, that proposition 
was not put upon paper by any living being anywhere. 



250 LINCOLN S SPEECHES COMPLETE. 

I have been unable at any time, to find a man in an 
audience who would declare that he had ever known of 
anybody saying so five years ago. But last year, there 
was not a Douglas popular sovereign in Illinois who did 
not say it. Is there one in Ohio but declares his firm 
belief that the Declaration of Independence did not 
mean negroes at all.^ I do not know how this is; I have 
not been here much; but I presume you are very much 
alike everywhere. Then I presume that all now express 
the belief that the Declaration of Independence never 
did mean negroes. I call upon one of them to say that 
he said it five years ago. 

If you think that now, and did not think it then, the next 
thing that strikes me is to remark that there has been a 
change wrought in you, and a very significant change it is, 
being no less than changing the negro, in your estima- 
tion, from the rank of a man to that of a brute. They 
are taking him down, and placing him, when spoken of, 
among reptiles and crocodiles, as Judge Douglas him- 
self expresses it. 

Is not this change wrought in your minds a very im- 
portant change.'* Public opinion in this country is every- 
thing. In a nation like ours, this popular sovereignty 
and squatter sovereignty has already wrought a change 
in the public mind to the extent I have stated. There 
is no man in this crowd who can contradict it. 

PUBLIC SENTIMENT. 

Now, if you are opposed to slavery honestly, as much 
as anybody, I ask you to note that fact, and the like of 
which is to follow, to be plastered on, layer after layer, 
until very soon you are prepared to deal with the negro 



THE SITUATION. 251 

everywhere as with the brute. If pubHc sentiment has 
not been debauched already to this point, a new turn of 
the screw in that direction is all that is wanting; and 
this is constantly being done by the teachers of this in- 
sidious popular sovereignty. You need but one or two 
turns further until your minds, now ripening under these 
teachings, will be ready for all these things, and you will 
receive and support, or submit to, the slave-trade, revived 
with all its horrors, a slave code enforced in our territo- 
ries, and a new Dred Scott decision to bring slavery up 
into the very heart of the free North. 

HENRY clay's VIEWS. 

This, I must say, is but carrying out their words pro- 
phetically spoken by Mr. Clay, many, many years ago — I 
believe more than thirty years — when he told an audience 
that if they repress all tendencies to liberty and ultimate 
emancipation, they must go back to the era of our inde- 
pendence and muzzle the cannon which thundered its 
annual joyous return on the Fourth of July; they must 
blow out the moral lights around us; they must pene- 
trate the human soul, and eradicate the love of liberty, 
but until they did these things, and others eloquently 
enumerated by him, they could not repress all tendencies 
to ultimate emancipation. 

I ask attention to the fact that in a pre-eminent degree 
these popular sovereigns are at this work; blowing out 
the moral hghts around us; teaching that the jiegro is 
no longer a man, but a brute; that the Declaration has 
nothing to do with him; that he ranks with the crocodile 
and the reptile; that man, with body and soul, is a mat- 
ter of dollars and cents. I suggest to this portion of the 



^52 LINCOLN'S SPEECHES COMPLETE. 

Ohio Republicans, or Democrats, if there be any present 
the serious consideration of this fact, that there is now 
going on among you a steady process of debauching pub- 
he opmion on this subject. With this, my friends I 
bid you adieu. ' 




SLAVERY, CAPITAL, LABOR, AND LABORERS. 

LINCOLN'S FAMOUS SPEECH TO THE 
KENTUCKIANS. 

(Delivered at Cincinnati, Ohio, September, 1859.) 

My Fellow-citizens of the State of Ohio: This 
is the first time in my life that I have appeared before 
an audience in so great a city as this. I therefore — 
though I am no longer a young man — make this appear- 
ance under some degree of embarrassment. But I have 
found that when one is embarrassed, usually the shortest 
way to get through with it is to quit talking or thinking 
about it, and go at something else. 

I understand that you have had recently with you my 
very distinguished friend, Judge Douglas, of Illinois, and 
I understand, without having had an opportunity (not 
greatly sought to be sure) of seeing a report of the speech 
that he made here, that he did me the honor to mention 
my humble name. I suppose that he did so for the pur- 
pose of making some objection to some sentiment at 
some tfme expressed by me. I should expect, it is true, 
that Judge Douglas had reminded you, or informed you, 
if you had never before heard it, that I had once in my 
life declared it as my opinion that this Government can 
not "endure permanently half slave and half free; that a 
house divided against itself cannot stand," and, as I 
had expressed it, I did not expect the house to fall; that 
I did not expect the Union to be dissolved; but that I 

(253) 



2 54 LINCOLNS SPEECHES COMPLETE. 

did expect that it would cease to be divided; that it 
would become all one thing or all the other; that either 
the opposition of slavery would arrest the further spread 
of it, and place it where the public mind would rest in 
the belief that it was in the course of ultimate extinction; 
or the friends of slavery will push it forward until it 
becomes alike lawful in all the states, old or new, free 
as well as slave. I did, fifteen months ago, express that 
opinion, and upon many occasions Judge Douglas has 
denounced it, and has greatly, intentionally or uninten- 
tionally, misrepresented my purpose in the expression of 
that opinion. 

I presume, without having seen a report of his speech, 
that he did so here. I presume that he alluded also to 
that opinion, in different language, having been express- 
ed at a subsequent time by Governor Seward of New 
York, and that he took the two in a lump aud denounced 
them; that he tried to point out that there was something 
couched in this opinion which led to the making of an en- 
tire uniformity of the local institutions of the various 
states of the Union, in utter disregard of the different 
states, which in their nature would seem to require a 
variety of institutions, and a variety of laws, conforming 
to the differences in the nature of the different states. 

Not only so; I presume he insisted that this was a 
declaration of war between the free and slave states — 
that it was the sounding to the onset of continual war 
between the different states, the slave and free states. 

This charge, in this form, was made by Judge Doug- 
las on, I believe, the 9th of July, 1858, in Chicago, in 
my hearing. On the next evening, I made some reply 



SLAVERY, LABOR, ETC. 255 

to it. I informed him that many of the inferences he 
drew from that expression of mine were altogether for- 
eign to any purpose entertained by me, and in so far as 
he should ascribe these inferences to me, as my purpose 
he was entirely mistaken; and in so far as he might 
argue that whatever might be my purpose, actions con- 
forming to my views would lead to these results he 
might argue and establish if he could; but, so far as 
purposes were concerned, he was totally mistaken as to 
me. 

When I made that reply to him — when I told him, on 
the question of declaring war between the different states 
of the Union, that I had not said that I did not expect 
any peace upon this question until slavery was extermi- 
nated; that I had only said I expected peace when that 
institution was put where the public mind should rest in 
the belief that it was in course of ultimate extinction; 
that I believed from the organization of our Government, 
until a very recent period of time, the institution had 
been placed and continued upon such a basis; that we 
had had comparative peace upon that question through a 
portion of that period of time, only because the pnblic 
mind rested in that belief in regard to it, and that when 
we returned to that position in relation to that matter, I 
supposed we should again have peace as we previously 
had. I assured him, as I now assure you, that I neither 
then had, nor have, or ever had, any purpose in any way 
of interfering with the institution of slavery, where it 
exists. I believe we have no power, under the Constitu- 
tion of the United States; or rather under the form of 
Government under which we live, to interfere with the 



256 Lincoln's speeches complete. 

institution of slavery, or any other of the institutions of 
our sister states, be they free or slave states. I declared 
then, and I now redeclare, that I have as little inclina- 
tion to interfere with the institution of slavery, where it 
now exists, through the instrumentality, of the General 
Government, or any other instrumentality, as I believe 
we have no power to do so. 

I accidentally used this expressson: I had no purpose 
of entering into the slave states to disturb the institution 
of slavery! So, upon the first occasion that Judge Doug- 
las got an opportunity to reply to me, he passed by the 
whole body of what I had said upon that subject, and 
seized upon the particular expression of mine, that I had 
no purpose of entering into the slave states to disturb 
the institution of slavery. "O, no," said he, ''he (Lin- 
coln) won't enter into the slave states to disturb the 
institution of slavery; he is too prudent a man to do 
•such a thing as that; he only means that he will go on 
to the line between the free and slave states, and shoot 
over at them. This is all he means to do. He means to 
do them all the harm he can, to disturb them all he 
can, in such a way as to keep his own hide in perfect 
safety." 

Well, now, I did not think, at that time, that that 
was either a very dignified or very logical argument; 
but so it was, I had to get along with it as well as I 
could. 

LINCOLN SHOOTING OVER THE LINE. 

It has occurred to me here to-night, that if I ever do 
shoot over the line at the people on the other side of the 
line into a slave state, and purpose to do so, keeping my 



SLAVERY, LABOR, ETC. 2 5/ 

skin safe, that I have now about the best chance I shall 
ever have. I should not wonder that there are some 
Kentuckians about this audience; we are close to Ken- 
tucky; and whether that be so or not, we are on elevated 
ground, and by speaking distinctly, I should not wonder 
if some of the Kentuckians would hear me on the other 
side of the river. For that reasen, I propose to address 
a portion of what I have to say to the Kentuckians. 

I say, then, in the first place to the Kentuckians, that 
I am what they call, as I understand it, a "Black Repub- 
lican." I think slavery is wrong, morally and politically. 
I desire that it should be no further spread in these 
United States, and I should not object if it should grad- 
ually terminate in the whole Union. While I say this 
for myself, I say to you, Kentuckians, that I understand 
you differ radically with me upon this proposition; that 
you believe slavery is a good thing; that slavery is right; 
that it ought to be extended and perpetuated in this 
Union. Now, there being this broad difference between 
us, I do not pretend in addressing myself to you, Ken- 
tuckians, to attempt proselyting you; that would be a vain 
effort. I do not enter upon it. I only propose to try 
to show you that you ought to nominate for the next 
Presidency, at Charleston, my distinguished friend, Judge 
Douglas. In all that there is a difference between you 
and him; I understand he is sincerely for you, and more 
wisely for you than you are for yourself. I will try to 
demonstrate that proposition. Understand now, I say 
that I believe he is as sincerely for you, and more wisely 
for you, than you are for yourselves. 

What do you want more than anything else to make 



258 LINCOLNS SPEECHES COMPLETE. 

successful your views of slavery — to advance the out- 
spread of it, and to secure and perpetuate the nationality 
of it? What do you want more than anything else? 
What is needed absolutely? What is indispensable to 
you? Why! if I may be allowed to answer the question, 
it is to retain a hold upon the North — it is to- retain 
support and strength from the free states. If you can 
get this support and strength from the free states you 
can succeed. If you do not get this support aud this 
strength from the free states, you are in the minority, 
and you are beaten at once. 

If that proposition be admitted — and it is undeniable 
— then the next thing I say to you is, that Douglas, of 
all the men in this nation, is the only man that affords 
you any hold upon the free states; that no other man can 
give you any strength in the free states. This being so, 
if you doubt the other branch of the proposition, whether 
he is for you — whether he is really for you, as I have ex- 
pressed it, I propose asking your attention for a while to 
a few facts. 

THE ISSUE. 

The issue between you and me, understand, is, that I 
think slavery is wrong, and ought not to be outspread, 
and you think it is right and ought to be extended and 
perpetuated. [A voice, [*'OLord."] That is my Ken- 
tuckian I am talking to now. 

I now proceed to try to show you that Douglas is sin- 
cerely for you, and more wisely for you, than you are 
for yourselves. 

In the first place, we know that in a Government like 
this, in a Government of the people, where the voice of 



SLAVERY, LABOR, ETC. 259 

all the men in that country, substantially, enters into the 
execution — or administration rather — of the Government 
— in such a Government, what lies at the bottom of all 
of it, is public opinion. I lay down the proposition, that 
Judge Douglas is not only the man that promises you in 
advance a hold upon the North, and support in the 
North, but that he constantly molds public opinion to 
your ends; that in every possible way he can, heconstantl}^ 
molds the public opinion of the North to your ends; and 
if there are a few things in which he seems to be against 
you — a few things which he says that appear to be against 
you, and a few that he forbears to say which you would 
like to have him say — you ought to remember that the 
saying of the one, or the forbearing to say the other, 
would lose his hold upon the North, and, by consequence, 
would lose his capacity to serve you. 

Upon this subject of molding public opinion, I call 
your attention to the fact — for a well-established fact it 
is — that the judge never says yonr institution of slavery 
is wrong; he never says it is right, to be sure, but he 
never says it is wrong. There is not a public man in the 
United States, I believe, with the exception of Senator 
Douglas, who has not, at some time in his life, declared 
his opinion whether the thing is right or wrong; but 
Senator Douglas never declares it wrong. He leaves 
himself at perfect liberty to do all in your favor which he 
would be hindered from doing if he were to declare the 
thing to be wrong. On the contrary, he takes all the 
chances that he has for inveigling the sentiment of the 
North, opposed to slavery, into your support, by never 
saying it is right. This you ought to set down to his 



26o Lincoln's speeches complete. 

credit. You ought to give him full credit for this much, 
little though it be in comparison to the whole which he 
does for you. 

vote it up or down, no matter which. 

Some other things I will ask your attention to. He 
said upon the floor of the United States Senate, and he 
has repeated it, as I understand, a great many times, 
that he does not care whether slavery is ' 'voted up or 
voted down. " This again shows you, or ought to show 
you, if you would reason upon it, that he does not be- 
lieve it to be wrong; for a man may say, when he sees 
nothing wrong in a thing, that he does not care whether 
it be voted up or voted down; but no man can logically 
say that he cares not whether a thing goes up or goes 
down, which to him appears to be wrong. You therefore 
have a demonstration in this, that to Judge Douglas's 
mind your favorite institution, which you would have 
spread out, and made perpetual, is no wrong. 

Another thing he tells you, in a speech made at Mem- 
phis, in Tennessee, shortly after the canvass in Illinois 
last year. He there distinctly told the people that there 
was a ' 'line drawn by the Almighty across this continent 
on the one side of which the soil must always be culti- 
vated by slaves;" that he did not pretend to know ex- 
actly where that line was, but that there was such a line 
I want to ask your attention to that proposition again: 
that there is one portion of this continent where the Al- 
mighty has designed the soil shall always be cultivated 
by slaves; that its being cultivated by slaves at that place 
is right; that it has the direct sympathy and authority 
of the Almighty. 



SLAVERY, LABOR, ETC. 26 1 

Whenever you can get these Northern audiences to 
adopt the opinion that slavery is right on the other side 
of the Ohio; whenever you can get them, in pursuance 
of Douglas's views, to adopt that sentiment, they will 
very readily make the other argument, which is perfectly 
logical, that that which is right on that side of the Ohio, 
can not be wrong on this; and that if you have that prop- 
erty on that side of the Ohio, under the seal and stamp 
of the Almighty, when by any means it escapes over here, 
it is wrong to have Constitutions and laws * 'to devil" 
you about it. So Douglas is molding the public opinion 
of the North, first to say that the thing is right in your 
state over the Ohio river, and hence to say that that 
which is right there is not wrong here, and that all laws 
and Constitutions here, recognizing it as being wrong, 
are themselves wrong, and ought to be repealed and 
abrogated. He" will tell you, men of Ohio, that if you 
choose here to have laws against slavery, it is in con- 
formity to the idea that your climate is not suited to it; 
that your climate is not suited to slave labor, and there- 
fore you have Constitutions and laws against it. 

Let us attend to that argument for a little while, and 
see if it is sound. You do not raise sugar cane, (except 
the new-fashioned sugar-cane, and you won't raise that 
long,) but they do raise it in Louisiana. You don't raise 
it in Ohio because you can't raise it profitably, because 
the climate don't suit it. They do raise it in Louisiana 
because there it is profitable. Now, Douglas w^ill tell you 
that is precisely the slavery question. That they do have 
slaves there because they are profitable, and you don't 
have them here because they are not profitable. If that 



262 LINCOLN'S SPEECHES COMPLETE. 

is SO, then it leads to dealing with the one precisely as 
with the other. Is there anything in the Constitution 
or laws of Ohio against raising sugar cane.? Have you 
found it necessary to put any such provision in your law.'* 
Surely not! No man desires to raise sugar-cane in Ohio; 
but, if any man did desire to do so, you would say it was 
a tyrannical law that forbids him doing so; and whenever 
your minds are brought to adopt his argument, as surely 
you will have reached the conclusion, that although slave- 
ry is not profitable in Ohio, if any man wants it, it is 
wrong to him not to let him have it. 

In this Judge Douglas is preparing the public mind f®r 
you of Kentucky, to make perpetual that good thing in 
your estimation, about which you and I differ. 

THE SHARERS IN THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE. 

In this connection let me ask your attention to another 
thing. I believe it is safe to assert that, five years ago, 
no living man had expressed the opinion that the negro 
had no share in the Declaration of Independence. Let 
me state that again; five years ago no living man had ex- 
pressed the opinion that the negro had no share in the 
Declaration of Independence. If there is in this large au- 
dience any man who ever knew of that opinion being put 
upon paper as much as five years ago, I will be obliged 
to him now or at a subsequent time to show it. 

If that be true I wish you then to note the next fact; 
that within the space of five years Senator Douglas, in the 
argument of this question, has got his entire party, so far 
as I know, without exception, to join in saying that the 
negro has no share in the Declaration of Independence. 



SLAVERY, LABOR, ETC. 263 

If there be now, in all these United States, one Douglas 
man that does not say this, I have been unable on any 
occasion to scare him up. Now, if none of you said this 
five years ago, and all of you say it now, that is a matter 
that you Kentuckians ought to note. That is a vast 
change in the Northern public sentiment upon that 
question. 

A GREAT CHANGE. 

Of what tendency is that change.? The tendency of 
that change is to bring the public mind to the conclusion 
that when men are spoken of, the negro is not meant; 
that when negroes are spoken of, brutes alone are con- 
templated. That change in public sentiment has already 
degraded the black man in the estimation of Douglas and 
his followers from the condition of a man of some sort, 
and assigned him to the condition of a brute. Now, you 
Kentuckians ought to give Douglas credit for this. That 
is the largest possible stride that can be made in regard 
to the perpetuation of your thing of slavery. 

A voice — "Speak to Ohio men, and not to Kentuck- 
ians!" 

Mr. Lincoln — I beg permission to speak as I please. 

In Kentucky perhaps, in many of the slave states cer- 
tainly, you are trying to establish the rightfulness of slave- 
ry by reference to the Bible. Yon are trying to show 
that slavery existed in the Bible times by Divine ordi- 
nance. Now, Douglas is wiser than you, for your own 
benefit upon that subject. 

Douglas knows that whenever you establish that slave- 
ry was right by the Bible, it will occur that, that slavery 



264 LINCOLNS SPEECHES COMPLETE. 

was the slavery of the white man — of men without refe- 
rence to color — and he knows very well that you may en- 
tertain that idea in Kentucky as much as you please, but 
you will never win any Northern support upon it. He 
makes a wiser ajrgument for you; he makes the argument 
that the slavery of the black man, the slavery of the man 
who has a skin of a different color from your own, is 
right. He thereby brings to your support Northern voters 
who could not for a moment be brought by your own 
argument of the Bible-right of slavery. Will you not 
give him credit for that.^ Will you not say that in this 
matter he is more wisely for you than you are for your- 
selves? 

Now, having established with his entire party this doc- 
trine, having been entirely successful in that branch of 
his efforts in your behalf, he is ready for another. 

At this same meeting at Memphis, he declares that, 
while in all contests between the negro and the white 
man, he was for the white man, but that in all questions 
between the negro and the crocodile he was for the negro. 
He did not make that declaration accidentally at Mem- 
phis. He made it a great many times in the canvass in 
Illinois last year, (though I dou't know that it was report- 
ed in any of his speeches there,) but he frequently made 
it. I believe he repeated it at Columbus, and I should 
not wonder if he repeated it here. It is, then, a deliber- 
ate way of expressions himself upon that subject. It is a 
m'atter of mature deliberation with him thus to express 
himself upon that point of his case. It therefore requires 
some deliberate attention. 

The first inference seems to be if you do not enslave 



SLAVERY, LABOR, ETC. 26$ 

the negro you are wrongiug the white man in some way 
or other; and that whoever is opposed to the negro be- 
ing enslaved, is, in some way or other, against the white 
man. Is not that a falsehood? If there was a necessary 
conflict between the white man and the negro, I should 
be for the white man as much as Judge Douglas; buf I 
say there is no such necessary conflict. I say there is 
room enough for us all to be free, and that it not only 
does not wrong the white man that the negro should be 
free, but it positively wrongs the mass of the white men 
that the negro should be enslaved; that the mass of white 
men are really injured by the effects of slave-labor in the 
fields of their own labor. 

But I do not desire to dwell upon this branch of the 
question more than to say that this assumption of his is 
false, and I do hope that the fallacy will not long prevail 
in the minds of intelligent white men. At all events, you 
ought to thank Judge Douglas for it. It is for your ben- 
efit it is made. 

The other branch of it is, that in a struggle between 
the negro and the crocodile, he is for the negro. Well, 
I don't know that there is any struggle between the negro 
and the crocodile either. I suppose that if a crocodile 
(or, as we old Ohio river boatmen used to call them, alli- 
gators) should come across a white man, he would kill him 
if he could, and so he would a negro. But what, at last, 
is this proposition.? I believe that it is a sort of proposi- 
tion in proportion, which may be stated thus:* 'As the ne- 
gro is to the white man, so is the crocodile to the negro; 
and as the negro may rightfully treat the crocodile as a 
beast or reptile, so the white man may rightfully treat the 



266 LINCOLNS SPEECHES COMPLETE. 

negro as a beast or reptile." That is really the "knip'' 
of all that argument of his. 

Now my brother Kentuckians, who believe in this, you 
ought to thank Judge Douglas for having put that in a 
much more taking way than any of yourselves have done. 

Again, Douglas's great principle, ' 'Popular Sovereign- 
ty," as he calls it, gives you, by natural consequence, the 
revival of the slave-trade whenever you want it. If you 
question this, listen a while, consider a while, what I 
shall advance in support of that proposition. 

He says that it is the sacred right of the man who 
goes into the territories, to have slavery if he wants it. 
Grant that for argument's sake. Is it not the sacred right 
of the men who don't go there equally to buy slaves in 
Africa, if he wants them.^* Can you point out the differ- 
ence.? The man who goes into the Territories of Kan- 
sas and Nebraska, or any other new territory, with the 
sacred right of taking a slave there which belongs to him, 
would certainly have no more right of taking a slave there 
than I would, who own no slave, but who would desire 
to buy one and take him there. You will not say — you, 
the friends of Judge Douglas — but that the man who 
does not own a slave, has an equal right to buy one and 
take him to the territory, as the other does. 

A RUNNING FIRE. 

A VOICE — " I want to ask a question. Don't foreign 
nations interfere with the slave-trade.?" 

Mr. Lincoln — Well! I understand it to be a principle 
of Democracy to whip foreign nations whenever they in- 
terfere with us. 



SLAVERY, LABOR, ETC. 267 

Voice — "I only ask for information. I am a Repub- 
lican myself." 

Mr. Lincoln — You and 1 will be on the best termns in 
the world, but I do not wish to be diverted from the point 
I was trying to press. 

I say that Dougla's Popular Sovereignty, establishing 
his sacred right in the people, if you please, if carried to 
its logical conclusion, gives equally the sacred right to 
the people of the states or the territories themselves to 
buy slaves, wherever they can buy them cheapest; and if 
any man can show a distinction, 1 should like to hear 
him try it. If any man can show how the people of 
Kansas have a better right to slaves because they want 
them, than the people of Georgia have to buy them in 
Africa, I want him to do it. I think it can not be done. 
If it is "Popular Sovereignty" for the people to have 
slaves because they want them, it is "Popular Sovereign- 
ty" for them to buy them in Africa, because they desire to 
do so. 

the scope of the constitution. 

I know that Douglas has recently made a little effort — 
not seeming to notice that he had a different theory — has 
made an effort to get rid of that. He has written a let- 
ter, adressed to somebody, I believe, who resides in Iowa, 
declaring his opposition to the repeal of the laws that 
prohibit the African slave-trade. He bases his opposi- 
tion to such repeal, upon the ground that these laws are 
themselves one of the compromises of the Constitution of 
the United States. Now it would be very interesting to 
see Judge Douglas, or any of his friends, turn to the Con- 



268 LINCOLN'S SPEECHES COMPLETE. 

stitution of the United States and point out that com- 
promise to show where there is any compromise in the 
Constitution,, or provision in the Constitution, express or 
imphed, by which the administrators of that Constitution 
are under any obHgation to repeal the African slave-trade. 
I know, or at least I think I know, that the framers of 
that Constitution did expect that the African slave-trade 
would be abolished at the end of twenty years, to which 
time their prohibition against its being abolished extend- 
ed- I think there is abundant cotemporaneous history to 
show that the framers of the Constitution expected it to 
be abolished- But while they so expected, they gave 
nothing for that expectation, and they put no provision 
in the Constitution requiring it should be abolished. The 
migration or importation of such persons as the states 
shall see fit to admit, shall not be prohibited, but a cer- 
tain tax might be levied upon such importation. But 
what was to be done after that time.'' The Constitution 
is as sileut about that, as it is silent, personally, about 
myself. There is absolutely nothing in it about that 
subject; there is only the expectation of the framers of 
the Constitution that the slave-trade would be abolished 
at the end of that time, and they expected it would be 
abolished, owing to public sentiment, before that time, 
and they put that provision in, in order that it should 
not be abolished before that time, for reasons which I 
suppose they thought to be sound ones, but which I will 
now try to enumerate before you. 

WHAT WAS EXPECTED. 

But while they expected the slave-trade would be 



SLAVERY, LABOR, ETC. 269 

abolished at that time, they expected that the spread of 
slavery into the new territories should also be restricted. 
It is as easy to prove that the framers of the Constitu- 
tion of the United States expected that slavery should be 
prohibited from extending into the new territories, as it 
is to prove that it was expected that the slave-trade 
should be abolished. Both these things were expected. 
One was no more expected than the other, and one was 
no more a compromise of the Constitution than the other. 
There was nothing said in the Constitution in regard to 
the spread of slavery into the territory. I grant that, 
but there was something very important said about it by 
the same generation of men in the adoption of the old 
ordinance of '87, through the Influence of which, you here 
in Ohio, our neighbors in Indiana, we in Illinois, our 
neighbors in Michigan and Wisconsin are happy, pros- 
perous, teeming millions of free men. That generation 
of men, though not to the full extent members of the 
Convention that framed the Constitution, were to some 
extent members of that Convention, holding seats at the 
same time in one body and the other, so that if there 
was any compromise on either of these subjects, the 
strong evidence is, that that compromise was in favor of 
the restriction of slavery from the new territories. 

MORE OF Lincoln's sarcasm. 

But Douglas says that he is unalterably opposed to the 
repeal of these laws because, in his view, it is a compro- 
mise of the Constitution. You Kentuckians, no doubt, 
are somewhat offended with that! You ought not to be! 
You ought to be patient! You ought to know that if he 



270 llncoln's speeches complete. 

said less than that, he would lose the power of "lugging 
the Northern States to your support. Really, what you 
would push him to do would take from him his entire 
power to serve you. And you ought to remember how 
long, by precedent, Judge Douglas holds himself obliged 
to stick by compromises. You ought to remember that 
by the time you yourselves think you are ready to inau- 
gurate measures for the revival of the African slave-trade, 
that sufficient time will have arrived, by precedent, for 
Judge Douglas to break through that compromise. He 
says now nothing more strong than he said in 1849, when 
he declared in favor of the Missouri Compromise — that 
precisely four years and a quarter after he declared that 
compromise to be a sacred thing, which "no ruthless 
hand would ever dare to touch, ' ' he, himself, brought 
forward the measure, ruthlessly to destroy it. By a mere 
calculation of time, it will only be four years more until 
he is ready to take back his profession about the sacred- 
ness of the Compromise abolishing the slave-trade. Pre- 
cisely as soon as you are ready to have his services in 
that direction, by fair calculation, you may be sure of 
having them. 

But you remember and set down to Judge Douglas's 
debt, or discredit, that he, last year said the people of 
territories can, in spite of the Dred Scott decision, exclude 
your slaves from those territories; that he declared by 
"unfriendly legislation," the extension of your property 
into the new territoties may be cut off in the teeth of the 
decision of the Supreme Court of the United States. 

He assumed that position at Freeport, on the 27th of 
August, 1858. He said that the people of the territories 



SLAVERY, LABOR, ETC, 2/1 

can exclude slavery in so many words. You ought, how- 
ever, to bear in mind that he has never said it since. 
You may hunt in every speech that he has since made, 
and he has never used that expression once. He has 
never seemed to notice that he is stating his views dif- 
ferently from what he did then; but, by some sort of ac- 
cident, he has always really stated it differently. He 
has always, since then, declared that ' 'the Constitution 
does not carry slavery into the territories of the United 
States, beyond the power of the people legally to control 
it, as other property. " Now, there is a difference in the 
language used upon that former occasion and in this lat- 
ter day. There may or may not be a difference in the 
meaning, but it is worth while considering whether there 
is not also a difference in meaning. 

EXCLUDING AND CONTROLLING. 

What is it to exclude.? Why, it is to drive it out; it 
is in some way to put it out of the territory; it is to force 
it across the line, or change its character, so that as prop- 
erty it is out of existence. But what is the controlling 
of it *'as other property.?" Is controlling it as other prop- 
erty the same thing as destroying it, or driving it away.? 
I should think not. I should think the controlHng of it 
as other property would be just about what you in Ken- 
tucky would want. I understand the controlling of prop- 
erty means the controlling of it for the benefit of the 
owner of it. While I have no doubt the Supreme Court 
of the United States would say "God speed" to any of 
the territorial Legislatures that should thus control slave 
property; they would sing quite a different tune, if by the 



272 LINCOLN S SPEECHES COMPLETE. 

pretense of controlling it they were to undertake to pass 
laws which virtually excluded it, and that upon a very 
well known principle to all lawyers, that what a Legisla- 
ture can not directly do, it cannot do by indirection; that 
as the Legislature has not the power to drive slaves out, 
they have no power by indrrection, by tax, or by imposing 
burdens in any way on that property, to effect the same 
end, and that any attempt to do so would be held by the 
Dred Scott court unconstitutional. 

CONTROLLED AS OTHER PROPERTY. 

Douglas is not willing to stand by his first proposition 
that they can exclude it, because we have seen that that 
proposition amounts to nothing more nor less than the 
naked absurdity, that you may lawfully drive out that 
which has a lawful right to remain. He admitted at first 
that the slave might be lawfully taken into the territo- 
ries under the Constitution of the United States, and yet 
asserted that he might be lawfully driven out. This be- 
ing the proposition, it is the absurdity I have stated. 
He is not willing to stand in the face of that direct, 
naked, and impudent absurdity; he has, therefore, mod- 
ified his language into that of being ''controlled as other 
property. " 

The Kentuckians don't like this in Douglas! I will 
tell you where it will go. He now swears by the court. 
He was once a leading man in Illinois to break down a 
court, because it had made a decision he did not like. 
But he now not only swears by the court, the courts hav- 
ing got to working for you, but he denounces all men 
that do not swear by the courts, as unpatriotic, .as bad 
citizens. When one of these acts of unfriendly legisla- 



SLAVERY, LABOR, ETC. 2/3 

tion shall impose such heavy burdens as to, in effect, 
destroy property in slaves in a territory, and show plainly 
enough that there can be no mistake in the purpose of 
the Legislature to make them so burdensome, this same 
Supreme Court will decide that law te be unconstitu- 
tional, and he will be ready to say for your benefit, ''I 
swear by the court; I give it up;" and while that is going 
on, he has been getting all his men to swear by the 
courts, and to give it up with him. In this again he 
serves you faithfully, and, as I say, more v/isely than you 
serve yourselves. 

*'THE IRREPRESSIBLE CONFLICT." 

Again: I have alluded in the beginning of these re- 
marks to the fact, that Judge Douglas has made great 
complaint of my having expressed the opinion that this 
Government ' 'can not endure permanently half slave and ^ 
half free." He has complained of Seward for using dif- 
ferent language, and declaring that there is an ''irrepress- 
ible conflict" between the principles of free and slave 
labor. [A voice — "He says it is not original with Sew- 
ard. That is original with Lincoln."] I will attend to 
that immediately sir. Since that time, Hickman, of 
Pennsylvania, expressed the same sentiment. He has 
never denounced Mr. Hickman. Why.? There is a little 
chance, notwithstanding that opinion in the mouth of 
Hickman, that he may yet be a Douglas man. That is 
the difference! It is not unpatriotic to hold that opinion 
if a man is a Douglas man. 

But neither I, nor Seward, nor Hickman, is entitled to 
the enviable or unenviable distinction of having first ex- 
pressed that idea. That same idea was expressed by the 



274 Lincoln's speeches complete. 

Richmond Enquirer, in Virginia, in 1856; quite two 
years before it was expressed by the first of us. And 
while Douglas was pluming himself, that in his conflict 
with my humble self, last year, he had ''squelched out" 
that fatal hersey, as he delighted to call it, and had sug- 
gested that if he only had had a chance to be in New 
York and meet Seward, he would have ' 'squelched" it 
there also, it never occurred to him to breathe a word 
against Pryor. I don't think that you can discover that 
Douglas ever talked of going to Virginia to ' 'squelch" out 
that idea there. No. More than that: that same Roger 
A. Pryor was brought to Washington City and made the 
editor of the par excellence Douglas paper, after making 
use of that expression, which, in us, is so unpatriotic 
and heretical. From all this, my Kentucky friends may 
see that this opinion is heretical in his view only when ex- 
pressed by men suspected of a desire that the country 
shall all become free, and not when expressed by those 
fairly known to entertain the desire that the whole coun- 
try shall become slave. When expressed by that class 
of men, it is in nowise offensive to him. In this again, 
my friends of Kentucky, you have Judge Douglas with 
you. 

ADDITIONAL REASONS. 

There is another reason why you Southern people 
ought to nominate Douglas at your Convention at 
Charleston. That reason is the wonderful capacity of 
the man; the power he has of doing -what would seem 
to be impossible. Let me call your attention to one of 
these apparently impossible things. 

Douglas had three or four very distinguished men of 



' SLAVERY, LABOR, ETC. 2/5 

the most extreme anti-slavery views of any men in the 
RepubHcan party, expressing their desire for his re-elec- 
tion to the Senate last year. That would, of itself, have 
seemed to be a little wonderful, but that wonder is hight- 
ened when we see that Wise, of Virginia, a man exactly 
opposed to them, a man who believes in the Divine right 
of slavery, was also expressing his desire that Douglas 
should be re-elected; that another man that may be said 
to be kindred to Wise, Mr. Breckinridge, the Vice-Pres- 
ident, and of your own state, was also agreeing with the 
anti-slavery men in the North, that Douglas ought to be 
re-elected. Still to heighten the wonder, a Senator from 
Kentucky, whom I have always loved with an affection 
as tender and endearing as I have ever loved any man; 
who was opposed to the auti-slavery men for reasons 
which seemed sufficient to him, and equally opposed to 
Wise and Breckinridge, was writing letters into Illinois 
to secure the re-election of Douglas. 

Now that all these conflicting elements should be 
brought, while at dagger's points, with one another, to 
support him, is a feat that is worthy of you to note and 
consider. It is quite probable that each of these classes 
of men thought, by the re-election of Douglas, their 
peculiar views would gain something; it is probable that 
the anti-slavery men thought their views would gain 
something; that Wise and Breckinridge thought so too, 
as regards their opinion; that Mr. Crittenden thought 
that his views would gain something, although he was 
opposed to both those other men. It is probable that 
each and all of them thought that they were using Doug- 
las, and it is yet an unsolved problem whether he was not 



2/6 Lincoln's speeches complete. 

using them all. If he was, then it is for you to consider 
whether that power to perform wonders, is one for you 
lightly to throw away. 

* 'NO fee" for this. 

There is one other thing that I will say to you in this 
relation. It is but my opinion, I give it to you without 
a fee. It is my opinion that it is for you to take him or 
be defeated; and that if you do take him you may be 
beaten. You will surely be beaten if you do not take him. 
We, the Republicans and others forming the opposition 
of the country, intend to "stand by our guns," to be 
patient and firm, and in the long run to beat you whether 
you take him or not. We know that before we fairly 
beat you, we have to beat you both together. We know 
that you are "all of a feather," and that we have to beat 
you altogether, and we expect to do it. We don't intend 
to be very impatient ubout it. We mean to be as delib- 
erate and calm about it as it is possible to be, but as 
firm and resolved as it is possible for men to be. When 
we do as we say, beat you, you perhaps want to know 
what we will do with you. 

I will tell you, so far as I am authorized to speak for 
the opposition, what we mean to do with you. We 
mean to treat you, as near as we possibly can, as Wash- 
ington, Jefferson, and Madison treated you. We mean 
to leave you alone, and in no way to interfere with your 
institution; to abide by all and every compromise of the 
Constitution, and, in a word, coming back to the original 
proposition, to treat you, so far as degenerated men (if 
we have degenerated) may, according to the examples of 
those noble fathers — Washington, Jefferson, and Madi- 
son. 



SLAVERY, labor; ETC. 2^7 

WHAT WE MEAN TO DO. 

We mean to remember that you are as good as we; 
that there is no difference between us other than the dif- 
ference of circumstances. We mean to recognize and 
bear in mind always that you have as good hearts in 
your bosoms as other people, or as we claim to have, and 
treat you accordingly. We mean to marry your girls 
when we have a chance — the white ones I mean; and I 
have the honor to inform you that I once did have a 
chance in that way. 

WHAT WILL YOU DO.? 

I have told you what we mean to do. I want to know 
now, when that thing takes place, what do you mean to 
do.? I often hear it intimated that you mean to divide 
the Union whenever a Republican, or anything like it, is 
elected President of the United States. 

A voice — That is so. 

Mr. Lincoln — ''That is so," one of them says; I wonder 
if he is a Kentuckian? 

A voice — He is a Douglas man. 

Mr. Lincoln — Well, then, I want to know what you 
are going to do with your half of it.? Are you going to 
split the Ohio down through, and push your half off a 
piece.? Or are you going to keep it right along-side of 
us outrageous fellows.? Or are you going to build up 
a wall some way between your country and ours, by 
which that movable property of yours can't come over 
here any more, to the danger of you losing it.? Do you 
think you can better yourselves on that subject, by 
leaving us here under no obligation whatever to return 
those specimens of your movable property that come 



2/8 Lincoln's speeches complete. 

hither? You have divided the Union because we v^ould 
not do right w^ith you, as you think, upon that subject; 
when we cease to be under obhgations to do anything 
for you, how much better off do you think you will be? 

WILL YOU make war? IF YOU DO, IT WILL MAKE IT WORSE 

FOR you! 

Will you make war upon us, and kill us all? Why, 
gentlemen, I think you are as gallant and as brave men 
as live; that you can fight as bravely in a good cause, 
man for man, as any other people living; that you have 
shown yourselves capable of this upon various occasions; 
but man for man, you are not better than we are, and 
there are not so many of you as there are of us. You will 
never make much of a hand at whipping us. If we were 
fewer in numbers than you, I think that you could whip 
us; if we were equal, it would likely be a drawn battle; 
but being inferior in numbers, you will make nothing by 
attempting to master us. 

But perhaps I have addressed myself as long, or longer, 
to the Kentuckians that I ought to have done, inasmuch 
as I have said that whatever course you take we intend 
in the end to beat you. 

I propose to address a few remarks to our friends, by 
way of discussing with them the best means of keeping 
that promise that I have in good faith made. 

It may appear a little episodical for me to mention the 
topic of which I shall speak now. It is a favorite prop- 
osition of Douglas's that the interference of the General 
Government, through the ordinance of '^7, or through 
any other act of the General Government, never has made 
or ever can make a free state; that the ordinance of '87 



SLAVERY, LABOR, ETC. 2/9 

did not make free states of Ohio, Indiana, or Illinois. 
That these states are free upon his "great piinciple" of 
popular sovereignty, because the people of those several 
states have chosen to make them so. At Columbus, and 
probably here, he undertook to compliment the people 
that they themselves have made the State of Ohio free, 
and that the ordinance of '^"j was not entitled, in any 
degree, to divide the honor with them. I have no doubt 
that the people of the State of Ohio did make her free 
according to their own will and judgement, but let the 
facts be remembered. 

HOW OHIO WAS MADE A FREE STATE. 

In 1802, I believe, it was you made your first Consti- 
tution, with the clause prohibiting slavery, and you did it, 
I suppose, very unamiously; but you should bear in mind 
that you — speaking of you as one people — that you did so 
unembarrassed by the actual presence of the institution 
among you; that you made it a free state, not with the 
embarrassment upon you of already having among you 
many slaves, which, if they had been here, and you had 
sought to make a free state, you would not know what 
to do with. If they had been among you, embarrassing 
difficulties, most probably, would have induced you to 
tolerate a slave Constitution instead of a free one, as in- 
deed these very difficulties have oonstrained every people 
on this continent who have adopted slavery. 

Pray what was it that made you free.? What kept you 
free.? Did you not find your country free when you came 
to decide that Ohio should be a free state.? It is impor- 
tant to inquire by what reason you found it so.? Let us 
take an illustration between the states of Ohio and Ken- 



28o Lincoln's speeches complete 

tucky. Kentucky is separated by this river Ohio, not a 
mile wide. A portion of Kentucky, by reason of the 
course of the Ohio, is further north than this portion of 
Ohio, in which we now stand. Kentucky is entirely cov- 
ered with slavery — Ohio is entirely free from it. What 
made that difference.? Was it climate.'* No! A portion 
of Kentucky was further north than this portion of Ohio. 
Was it soil.? No! There is nothing in the soil of the 
one more favorable to slave labor than the other. It was 
not climate or soil that caused one side of the line to be 
entirely covered with slavery, and the other side free of 
it. What was it.? Study over it. Tell us, if you can, 
in all the range of conjecture, if there be anything you 
can conceive of that made that difference, other than that 
there w,as no law of any sort keeping it out of Kentucky, 
while the ordinance of '2>'j kept it out of Ohio.? If there 
is any other reason than this, I confess that it is wholly 
beyond my power to conceive it. This, then, I offer to 
combat the idea that that ordinance has never made any 
state free. 

INDIANA AND KENTUCKY. 

I don't stop at this illustration. I come to the State of 
Indiana; and what I have said as between Kentucky and 
Ohio, I repeat as between Indiana and Kentucky; it is 
equally applicable. One additional argument is applica- 
ble also to Indiana. In her territorial condition she more 
than once petitioned Congress to abrogate the ordinance 
entirely, or at least so far as to suspend its operation for 
a time, in order that they should exercise the * 'popular 
sovereignty" of having slaves if they wanted them. The 



SLAVEry, LABOR, ETC. 28 1 

men then controlling the General Government, imitating 
the men of the Revolution, refused Indiana that privilege. 
And so we have the evidence that Indiana supposed she 
could have slaves if it were not for that ordinance; that 
that she besought Congress to put that barrier out of the 
way; that Congress refused to do so, and it all ended at 
last in Indiana being a free state, Tell me not, then, 
that the ordinance of '87 had nothing to do with making 
Indiana a free state, when we find some men chafing 
against and only restrained by that barrier. 

THE GREAT NORTHWESTERN TERRITORY. 

Come down again to our State of Illinois. The great 
Northwestern Territory, including Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, 
Michigan, and Wisconsin, was acquired first, I believe, 
by the British Government, in part, at least, from the 
French. Before the establishment of our independence, 
it became a part of Virginia; enabling Virginia afterward 
to transfer it to the General Government. There were 
French settlements in what is now Illinois, and at the 
same time there were French settlements in what is now 
Missouri — in the tract of country that was not purchased 
till about 1803. In these French settlements negro slave- 
ry had existed for many years — perhaps more than a 
hundred, if not as much as two hundred years — at Kas- 
kaskia, in Illinois, and at St. Genevieve, or Cape Girar- 
deau, perhaps in Missouri. The number of slaves was 
not very great, but there was about the same number in 
each place. They were there when we acquired the ter- 
ritory. There was no effort made to break up the re- 
lation of master and slave, and even the ordinance of 
1787 was not so enforced as to destroy that slavery in 



282 Lincoln's speeches complete. 

Illinois; nor did the ordinance apply to Missouri at all. 

ILLINOIS AND MISSOURI. 

What I want to ask your attention to at this point, is 
that Illinois and Missouri came into the Union about the 
same time, Illinois in the latter part of 1818, and Mis- 
souri, after a struggle, I believe some time in 1820. 
They had been filling up with American people about 
the same period of time; their progress enabling them 
to come into the Union about the same. At the end 
of that ten years, in which they had been so preparing, 
(for it was about that period of time,) the number of 
slaves in Illinois had actually decreased; while in Mis- 
souri, beginning with very few, at the end of that ten 
years, there was about ten thousand. This being so, 
and it being remembered that Missouri and Illinois are, 
to a certain extent, in the same parallel of latitude — that 
the northern half of Missouri and the southern half of 
Illinois are in the same parallel of latitude — so that 
climate would have the same effect upon one as upon the 
other, and that in the soil there is no material differ- 
ence so far as bears upon the question of slavery being 
settled upon one or the other — there being none of those 
natural causes to produce a difference in filling them and, 
yet there being a broad difference in their filling up, we 
are led again to inquire what was the cause of that 
difference. 

It is most natural to say that in Missouri there was no 
law to keep that country from filling up with slaves, while 
in Illinois there was the ordinance of 'Sy. Tne ordi- 
nance being there slavery decreased during that ten 



SLAVERY, LABOR, ETC. 283 

years — the ordinance not being in the other, it increased 
from a few to ten thousand. Can anybody doubt the 
reason of the difference? 

I think all these facts most abundantly prove that my 
friend Judge Dougla's proposition, that the ordinance of 
'87, or the national restriction of slavery, never had a 
tendency to make a free state, is a fallacy — a proposition 
without the shadow or substance of truth about it. 

Douglas sometimes says that all the states (and it 
is part of this same proposition I have been discussing) 
that have become free, have become so upon his * 'great 
principle;" that the state of Illinois itself came into 
the Union as a slave state, and that the people, upon 
the "great principle" of Popular Sovereigntv, have 
since made it a free state. Allow me but a little while 
to state to you what facts there are to justify him 
in saying that Illinois came into the Union as a slave 
state. 

WAS ILLINOIS A SLAVE STATE.? 

I have mentioned to you that there were a few old 
French slaves there. They numbered, I think, one or 
two hundred. Besides that, there had been a territorial 
law for indenturing black persons. Under that law, in 
violation of the ordinance of '^y, but without any en- 
forcement of the ordinance to overthrow the system, 
there had been a small number of slaves introduced as 
indentured persons. Owing to this the clause for the 
prohibition of slavery was slightly modfied. Instead of 
running like yours, that neither slavery nor involuntary 
servitude, except for crime of which party shall have been 



284 Lincoln's speeches complete. 

duly convicted, should exist in the state, they said that 
neither slavery nor involuntary servitude should there- 
after be introduced, and that the children of indentured 
servants should be born free; and nothing was said about 
the few old French slaves. Out of this fact, that the 
clause for prohibiting slavery was modified because of the 
actual presence of it, Douglas asserts again and again 
that Illinois came into the Union as a slave state. 

How far the facts sustain the conclusion that he draws 
it is for intelligent and impartial men to decide. I leave 
it with you with these remarks, worthy of being remem- 
bered, that that little thing, those few indentured servants 
being there, was of itself sufficient to modify a Constitu- 
tion made by a people ardently desiring to have a free 
Constitution; showing the power of the actual presence 
of the institution of slavery to prevent any people, how- 
ever anxious to make a free state, from making it perfect- 
ly so. 

I have been detaining you longer, perhaps, than I 
ought to. 

POPULAR sovereignty DEFINED. 

I am in some doubt whether to introduce another topic 
upon which I could talk awhile. [Cries of ''go on," 
and ''Give us it. " It is this then: Douglas's popular sov- 
ereignty, as a principle, is simply this: If one man 
choses to make a slave of another man, neither that man 
nor anybody else has a right to object, Apply it to gov- 
ernment, as he seeks to apply it, and it is this: if, in a 
new territory, into which a few people are beginning to 
enter for the purpose of making their homes, they choose 



SLAVERY, LABOR, ETC. 285 

either to exclude slavery from their limits, or to establish it 
there, however one or the other may effect the persons to 
be enslaved, or the infinitely greater number of persons 
who are afterward to inhabit that territory, or the other 
members of the family of communities of which they are 
but an incipient member, or the general head of the 
family of states as parent of all — however their action 
may affect one or the other of these, there is no power 
or right to interfere. That is Douglas's popular sovereignty 
applied. Now I think that there is a real popular sov- 
ereignty, in the world. 

I think a definition of popular sovereignty, in the 
abstract, would be about this: that each man shall do 
precisely as he pleases with himself, and with all those 
things which exclusively concern him. Applied in gov- 
ernment, this principle would be, that a general govern- 
ment shall do all those things which pertain to it, and all 
the local governments shall do precisely as they please 
in respect to those matters which exclusively concern 
them. 

A FEW IMPORTANT QUESTIONS. 

Upon what principle shall it be said the planting of 
a new territory by the first thousand people that migrate 
to it, is a matter concerning them exclusively.^ What 
kind of logic is it that argues that it in no wise concerns, 
if you please, the black men who are to be enslaved.? Or 
if you are afraid to say anything about that; if you have 
been bedeviled for your sympathy for the negro; if noses 
have been turned up at you; and if you have been ac- 
cused of having wanted the negro as your social equal, 
for a juror, to be a witness against your white brethren, 



286 Lincoln's speeches complete. 

or even to marry with him; if you have been accused of 
all this, antil you, are afraid to speak of the colored 
race; — then, 1 ask you, w^hat right is there to say that the 
planting of free soil with slavery has no effect upon the 
white men that are to go there afterward as emigrants 
from the older states? By what right do a few of the 
first setlers fix that first condition beyond the power of 
succeeding millions to eradicate it? Why slall a few men 
be allowed, as it were, to sow that virgin soil with Can- 
ada thistles, or any other pest of the soil, which the far- 
mer, in subsequent ages, cannot eradiate without endless 
toil. Is it a matter that exclusively concerns those few 
people that settle there first? 

Douglas argues that it is a matter of exclusive local 
jurisdiction. What enables him to say that? It is be- 
cause he looks upon slavery as so insignificant that the 
people may decide that question for themselves, albeit 
they are not fit to decide who shall be their governor,, 
judge or secretary, or who have been any of their officers. 
These are vast national matters, in his estimation; but 
the little matter, in his estimation, is the planting of 
slavery there. That is purely local interest, which no- 
body should be allowed to say a word about. It is a 
great national question that Sammedary shall be appoint- 
ed by the President as Governor of Kansas, that he may 
go there for a year or two, and come away without there 
being left behind him a sign for good or evil of his hav- 
ing been there, but the question of planting slavery on 
that soil is a little, local, unimportant matter, that no- 
body ought to be allowed to speak of. Such an expres- 
sion is absolutely shameful. 



SLAVERY, LABOR, ETC. 28/ 

LABOR AND LABORERS 

Labor is the great source from which nearly all, if not 
all, human comforts and necessaries are drawn. There 
is a difference of opinion about the elements of labor in 
a society. Some men assume that there is a necessary 
connection between capital and labor, and that connec- 
tion draws within it all of the labor of the comunity. 
They assume that nobody works unless capital excites 
him to work. They begin next to consider what is the 
best way for capital to be used to induce people to work. 
They say that there are but two ways; one is, to hire 
men and allure them to labor by their own consent, and 
the other is to buy the men, and drive them to labor. 
This latter is slavery. Having assumed so much, they 
proceed to discuss the question of whether the laborers 
themselves are better off in the conditi on of slavery or 
of hired laborers; and they usually decide that they are 
better off in the condition of slaves. 

THE IMPORTANT RELATION OF CAPITAL AND LABOR. 

In the first place I say that that whole theory is a 
mistake. That there is a certain relation between capi- 
tal and labor; I admit. That it does exist, and right- 
fully exist, and that it is proper that it should 
exist, I think is true. I think, in the progress of things, 
that men who are industrious, and sober, and honest in 
the pursuit of their own interests, shoulr" after a while, 
accumulate capital, and then should be allowed to enjoy 
it in peace, and also, if they choose, when they have ac- 
cumulated it, use it to save themselves from actual labor, 
by hiring other people to labor for them. In doing so, 



288 Lincoln's speeches complete. 

they do not wrong the man they employ, for they find 
young men who have not of their own land to work upon, 
or shops to labor in. , and who are benefited by working 
for others in the capacity of hired laborers, receiving 
their capital for it. Thus, a few men that own capital, 
hire others, and thus establish the relation of capital and 
and labor rightfully; a relation of which I make no com- 
plaint. But I insist that the relation, after all, does not 
embrace more that one-eight of all the labor of the coun- 
try. At least seven-eighths of the labor is done without 
relation to it. 

SEVEN EIGHTS OF THE LABOR HAS NO RELATION TO CAPITAL. 

Take the State of Ohio. Out of eight bushels of 
wheat, seven are raised by those men who labor for them- 
selves, aided by their boys grown to manhood, neither 
being hired nor hiring, but literally laboring upon their 
own hook, asking no favor of capital, of hired laborer or 
slave. That is the true condition of the larger portion 
of all the labor done in this community, or that should 
be the condition of labor in well-regulated communities 
of agriculturists. Thus much for that part of the sub- 
ject. 

Again: the assumption that the slave is in a better con- 
dition than the hired laborer includes the further assump- 
tion that he who is once a hired laborer always remains 
a hired laborer; that there is a certain class of men who 
remain through life in a dependent condition. Then 
they endeavor to point out that when they get old they 
have no kind masters to take care of them, and that 
they fall dead in the traces, with the harness of actual 



SLAVERY, LABOR, ETC. 289 

labor upon their backs. In point of fact that is a false 
assumption. There is no such thing as a man who is a 
hired laborer, of a necessity, always remaining in his 
early condition. Tne general rule is otherwise. I know 
it is so, and I will tell you why. 

MR. Lincoln's own experience as a laboring man. 

When at an early age, I was myself a hired laborer, at 
twelve dollars per month; and therefore I do know 
that there is not always the necessity for actual labor be- 
cause once there was propriety in being so. My under- 
standing of the hired laborer is this: A young man finds 
himself of an age to be dismissed from parental control; 
he has for his capital nothing, save two strong hands 
that God has given him, a heart willing to labor, and a 
freedom to choose the mode of his work and the manner 
of his employer; he has got no soil nor shop, and he 
avails himself of theopportunity of hiring himself to some 
man who has capital to pay him a fair day''s wages for 
a fair day's work. He is benefited by availing himself 
of that privilege. He works industriously, he behaves 
soberly, and the result of a year or two's labor is a sur- 
plus of capital. Now he buys land on his own hook; 
he settles, marries, begets sons and daughters, and in 
course of time he has enough capital to hire some new 
beginner. 

In this same way every member of the whole com^ 
munity benefits and improves his condition. That is 
the true condition of labor in the world, and it breaks 
up the saying of these men that there is a class of men 
chained down throughout life to labor for another. 
There is no such case unless he be of that confiding, and 



290 LINCOLNS SPEECHES COMPLETE. 

leaning disposition that makes it preferable for him to 
choose that course, or unless he be a vicious man, who, 
by reason of his vice, is, in some way prevented from 
improving his condition, or else he be a singularly unfor- 
tunate man. There is no such thing as a man being 
bound down in a free country through his life as a 
laborer. This progress by which the poor, honest, in- 

: dustrious, and resolute man raises himself, that he may 
work on his own account, and hire somebody else, is 
that progress that human nature is entitled to, is that 
improvement in condition that is intended to be secured 
by those institutions under which we live, is the great 
principle for which this government was really formed. 
Our government was not established that one man 
might do with himself as he pleases, and with another 

/man too. 

Lincoln's views on labor. 
I hold that if there is any one thing that can be proved 
to be the will of God by external nature around us with- 
out reference to revelation, it is the proposition that 
whatever anyone man earns with his hands and by the 
sweat of his brow, he shall enjoy in peace. I say that 
whereas God Almighty has given every man one mouth 
to be fed, and one pair of hands adapted to furnish food 
for that mouth, if anything can be proved to be the will 
of Heaven, it is proved by this facf, that that mouth is to 
be fed by those hands, without being interfered with by 
any other man who has also his mouth to feed and his 
hands to labor with. 

I hold if the Almighty had ever made a set of men that 
should do all of the eating and none of the work, he 



SLAVERY, LABOR, ETC. 29 1 

would have made them with mouths only and no hands, 
and if he had ever made another class that he intended 
should do all the work and none of the eating, he would 
have made them without mouths and with all hands. 
But inasmuch as he has not chosen to make man in that 
way, if anything is proved, it is that those hands and 
mouths are to be co-operative through life and not to be 
interfered with. That they are to go forth and improve 
their condition as I have been trying to illustrate, is 
the inherent right given to mankind directly by the 
Maker. 

In the exercise of this right you must have room. In 
the filling up of countries, it turns out after a while that 
we get so thick that we have not quite room enough for 
the exercise of that right, and we desire to go somewhere 
else. Where shall we go to.? "Where shall you go to es- 
cape from over-population and competition.? To those 
new territories which belong to us, which are God-given 
for that purpose. If, then, you will go to those territo- 
ries that you may improve your condition, you have a 
right to keep them in the best condition for those going 
into them, and can they make that natural advance in 
their condition if they find the institution of slavery 
planted there.? 

My good friends, let me ask you a question — you who 
have come from Virginia or Kentucky, to get rid of this 
thing of slavery — let me ask you what headway would 
you have made in getting rid of it, if by popular sover- 
eignty you find slavery on that soil which you looked for 
to be free when you get there.? You would not have 
made much headway if you had found slavery already 



292 LINCOLN'S SPEECHES COMPLETE. 

here, if you had to sit down to your labor by the side of 
the unpaid workman. 

I say, then, that it is due to yourselves as voters, a3 
owners of the new territories, that you shall keep those 
territories free, in the best condition for all such of your 
gallant sons as may choose to go there. 

I do not desire to elaborate this branch of the general 
subject of political discussion at this time further. I 
did not think I would get upon this topic at all, and I 
have detained you already too long in its discussion. 

A NATIONAL POLICY THAT STAMPS SLAVERY AS INHERENTLY 

WRONG. 

I have taken upon myself, in the name of some of you, 
to say that we expect, upon these principles, to ultimately 
beat them. In order to do so, I think we want and must 
have a national policy in regard to the institution of 
slavery, that acknowleges and deals with that institution 
as being wrong. Whoever desires the prevention of the 
spread of slavery and the nationalization of that institu- 
tion, yields all, when he yields to any policy that either 
recognizes slavery as being right, or as being an indif- 
ferent thing. Nothing will make you successful but set- 
ting up a policy which shall treat the thing as being 
wrong. When I say this, I do not mean to say that this 
General Government is charged with the duty of redress- 
ing or preventing all the wrongs in the world; but I do 
think that it is charged with preventing and redressing 
all wrongs which are wrongs to itself. 

This Government is expressly charged with the duty 
of providing for the general welfare. We believe that 
the spreading out and perpetuity of the institution of 



SLAVERY, LABOR, ETC. 293 

slavery impairs the* general welfare. We believe — nay, 
we know, that that is the only thing that has ever threat- 
ened the perpetuity of the Union itself. The only thing 
which has ever menaced the destruction of the govern- 
ment under which we live is this very thing. To repress 
this thing, we think, is providing fgr the general welfare. 
Our friends in Kentucky differ from us. We need not 
make our argument for them, but we who think it is- 
wrong in all its relations, or in some of them at least 
must decide as to our own actions, and our own course, 
upon our own judgement. 

Lincoln's position. 

I say that we must not interfere with the institution of 
slavery in the states where it exists, because the Consti- 
tution forbids it, and the general welfare does not require 
us to do so. We must not withhold an efficient fugitive 
slave law; because the Constitution requires us, as I un- 
derstand it, not to withhold such a law. But we must 
prevent the outspreading of the institution; because 
neither the Constitution nor general welfare requires us 
to extend it. We must prevent the revival of the African 
slave-trade, and the enacting, by Congress, of a territor- 
ial slave code. We must prevent each of these things 
being done by either congresses or courts. The people 
of these United States are the rightful masters of both 
congresses and courts, not to overthrow the Constitu- 
tion, but to overthrow the men who pervert the Consti- 
tution. 

To do these things we must employ instrumentalities. 
We must hold conventions; we must adopt platforms, if 
we conform to ordinary custom; we must nominate can- 



294 LINCOLN S SPEECHES COMPLETE. 

didates, and we must carry elections. In all these things, 
I think that we ought to keep in view our real purpose, 
and in none do anything that stands adverse to our pur- 
pose. If we shall adopt a platform that fails to recog- 
nize or express our purpose, or elect a man that declares 
himself inimical to our purpose, we not only make nothing 
by our success, but we tacitly admit that we act upon no 
other principle than a desire to have the "loaves and 
fishes," by which, in the end, our apparent success is 
really an injury to us. 

ANXIOUS FOR THE WHOLE UNION. 

I know that this is very desirable with me, as with 
everybody else, that all the elements of that Opposition 
shall unite in the next Presidential election and in all 
future time. I am anxious that that should be, but there 
are things seriously to be considered in relation to that 
matter. If the terms can be arranged, I am in favor of 
the Union. But, suppose we shall take up some man 
and put him upon one end or the other of the ticket, who 
declares himself against us in regard to the prevention of 
the spread of slavery — who turns up his nose, and says 
he is tired of hearing anything more about it — who is 
more against us than against the enemy, what will be the 
issue.? Why, he will get no slave states after all — he has 
tried that already, until being beat is the rule for him. 
If we nominate him upon that ground, he will not carry 
a slave state, and not only so, but that portion of our 
men who are high-strung upon the principle we really 
fight for, will not go for him, and he won't get a single 
electoral vote anywhere, except, perhaps, in the State *of 
Maryland. There is no use in saying to us that we are 



SLAVERY, LABOR, ETC. 295 

stubborn and obstinate, because we won't do some such 
thing as this. We cannot do it. We cannot get our men 
to vote it. I speak by the card, that we cannot give the 
State of IlHnois, in such case, by fifty thousand. We 
would be flatter down than the "Negro Democracy" 
themselves have the heart to wish to see us. 

WOULD VOTE FOR SOME GOOD SOUTHERN MAN. 

After saying this much, let me say a little on the other 
side. There are plenty of men in the slave states that 
are altogether good enough for me, to be either President 
or Vice-President, providing they will profess their sym- 
pathy with our purpose, and will place themselves on the 
ground that our men, upon principle, can vote for them. 
There are scores of them, good men in their char- 
acter for intelligence and talent and integrity. If 
such a one will place himself upon the right ground, 
I am for his occupying one place upon the next Repub- 
lican or Opposition ticket. I will heartily go for him. 
But, unless he does so place himself, I think it a matter 
of perfect nonsense to attempt to bring about a union 
upon any other basis; that if a union be made, the 
elements will scatter so that there can be no success for 
such a ticket, nor anything like success. The good old 
maxims of the Bible are applicable, and truly applicable 
to human affairs; and in this, as in other things, we may 
say here that "He who is not for us is against us;" "He 
whogathereth not with usscattereth." I should be glad to 
have some of the many good, and able, and noble men of 
the South to place themselves where we can confer upon 
them the high honor of an election, upon one or the 
other end of our ticket. It would do my soul good to do 



296 LINCOLNS SPEECHES COMPLETE. 

that thing. It would enable us to teach them that, inas- 
much as we select one of their own number to carry out 
our principles, we are free from the charge that we mean 
more than we say. 

But, my friends, I have detained you much longer 
than I expected to do. I believe I may do myself the 
compliment to say, that you have stayed and heard me 
with great patience, for which I return you my most 
sincere thanks. 



LINCOLN'S FIRST PROCLAMATION 
OF FREEDOM. 

J. H, Wickizer, a lawyer, gives the following as 
Lincoln's first proclamation of freedom. It was given 
one day when the two lawyers were riding in a buggy 
from Woodford County Court to Bloomington, 111. ; when 
passing through a grove, they suddenly heard the terrific 
squealing of a little pig near by, occasioned by an old 
hog that was about to eat up one of her young ones. 
Quick as thought Lincoln leaped out of the buggy, seized 
a club, bounced upon, and beat the hog, and saved, the 
pig; remarking as he jumped back in the buggy: 

'*By jing! the unnatural old brute shall not devour her 
own progeny!" 



LINCOLN'S GREAT COOPER INSTITUTE 
SPEECH. 

DELIVERED AT COOPER INSTITUTE, NEW YORK CITY, 
FEBRUARY 2/, 1 86o. 

[This great speech, more than any other one, is sup- 
posed to have secured Lincoln the nomination for 
president.] 

Mr. President and Fellow Citizens of New York: 
The facts with which I shall deal this evening are main- 
ly old and familiar; nor is there anything new in the general 
use I shall make of them. If there shall be any novel- 
ty, it will be in the mode of presenting the facts, and 
the references and observations following that presenta- 
tion. 

our fathers and the constitution. 

In his speech last autumn, at Columbus, Ohio, as 
reported in the New York times. Senator Douglas said: 

**Our fathers, when they framed the government 
under which we live, understood this question just as 
well, and even better than we do now." 

I fully indorse this, and I adopt it as a text for this 
discourse. I so adopt it because it furnishes a precise 
and an agreed stating-point for a discussion between Re- 
publicans and that wing of democracy headed by Senator 
Douglas. It simply leaves the inquiry: "What was the 

(297) 



298^ Lincoln's speeches complete. 

understanding those fathers had of the question mention- 
ed?" 

What is the frame of government under which we 
live? 

The answer must be: "The Constitution of the Uni- 
ted States." That Constitution consists of the original, 
framed in 1787, (and under which the present govern- 
ment first went into operation,) and twelve subsequent- 
ly framed amendments, the first ten of which were 
framed in 1789. 

Who were our fathers that framed the Constitution? 
I suppose the ''thirty-nine" who signed the original in- 
strument may be fairly called our fathers who framed 
that part of our present government. It is almost exact- 
ly true to say they framed it, and it is altogether true 
to say they fairly represented the opinion and sentiment 
cf the whole nation at that time. Their names being 
familiar to nearly all, and accessible to quite all, need 
not now be repeated. 

I take these ''thirty-nine." for the present, as being 
' 'our fathers who framed the government under which 
we live." 

What is the question which, according to the text, 
those fathers understood just as well and even better 
than we do now? 

THE great issue. 

It is this: Does the proper division of local from 
Federal authority, or anything in the Constitution, for- 
bid our Federal Government to control as to slavery in 
our Federal territories? 

Upon this Douglas holds the affirmative, and Republi- 



COOPER INSTITUTE SPEECH. 299 

cans the negative. This affirmative and denial form an 
issue; and this issue— this question — is precisely what 
the text declares our fathers understood better than we. 

Let us now inquire whether the * 'thirty-nine or any 
of them ever acted upon this question, and if they did, 
how they acted upon it — how they expressed that better 
understanding. 

In 1784 — three years before the Constitution — the 
United States then owing the North-western Territory, 
and no other — the Congress of the Confederation had 
before them the question of prohibiting slavery in that 
territory; and four of the "thirty-nine who afterward 
framed the Constitution were in that Congress,, and' 
voted on that question. Of these Roger Sherman, 
Thomas Mifflin and Hugh Williamson voted for the pro- 
hibition—thus showing that, in their understanding, no 
line dividing local from Federal authority, nor anything 
^else, properly forbade the Federal Government to con- 
trol as to slavery in Federal territory. The other of the 
four — James McHenry — voted against the prohibition, 
showing that, for some cause, he thought it improper to 
vote for it. 

ORDINANCE OF I 787, 

In 1787, still before the Constitution, but while the 
convention was in session framing it and while the 
North-west Territory still was the only territory owned 
by the United States — the same question of prohibiting 
slavery in the territory again cam^e before the Congress 
of the Confederation and three more of the "thirty-nine" 
who afterward signed the Constitution were in that 
Congress and voted on the question. They were 



300 Lincoln's speeches complete. 

William Blount, William Few, and Abraham Baldwin, 
and they all voted for the prohibition — thus showing 
that, in their understanding, no line dividing local from 
Federal authority, nor anything else, properly forbade 
the Federal Government to control as to slavery in 
Federal territory. This time the prohibition became a 
law, being a part of what is now known as the ordinance 
of 'Sy. 

The question of Federal control of slavery in the 
territories seems not to have been directly before the 
convention which framed the original Constitution: 
and hence it is not recorded that the "thirty-nine" or 
any of them, while engaged on that instrument, express- 
ed any opinion on that precise question. 

THE FIRST congress. 

In 1789, by the first Congress which sat under the 
Constitution, an act was passed to enforce the ordi- 
nance of '8y, including the prohibition of slavery in the 
North-western Territory. The bill for this act was re- 
ported by one of the "thirty-nine," Thomas Fitzsim- 
mons, then a member of the House of Representatives 
from Pennsylvania. It went through all its stages with- 
out a word of opposition, and finally passed both branch- 
es without yeas or nays, which is equivalent to a unani- 
mous passage. In this Congress there were sixteen of 
the "thirty-nine fathers who framed the original Con- 
stitution. They were: 

John Langdon, George Clymer, Richard Basset, , 

Nicholas Gilman, William Few, George Read, 

William S. Johnson, Abraham Baldwin, Pierce Butler, 
Roger Sherman, Rufus King, Daniel Carroll, 



COOPER IXSTITl'TE SPEECH. 3OI 

Robert Morris, William patterson, James Madison, 

Thos. Fitzsimmoris. 
This shows that in their understanding no line divid- 
ing local from Federal authority, nor anything in the 
Constitution, properly forbade Congress to prohibit 
slavery in the Federal territory; else both their fidelity to 
correct principle, and their oath to support the Constitu- 
tion, would have constrained them to oppose the pro- 
hibition. 

GEOEGE WASHINGTON. 

Again George Washington, another of the "thirty- 
nine," was then President of the United States, and, as 
such, approved and signed the bill, thus completing its 
validity as a law, and thus showing that, in his under- 
standing, no line dividing local from Federal authority, 
nor anything in the Constitution, forbade the Federal 
Government to control as to slavery in Federal territory. 

THE FIRST TERRITORIES. 

No great while after the adoption of the original Con- 
stitution, North Carcjlina ceded to the Federal Govern- 
ment the country now constituting the State of Tennes- 
see; and a few years later, Georgia ceded that which 
now constitutes the States of Mississippi and Alabama. 
In both deeds of cession it was made a condition by 
the ceding States that the Federal Government should 
not prohibtt slavery in the ceded country. Besides this 
slavery was then actually in the ceded country. Under 
these circumstances. Congress, on taking charge of 
these countries, did not absolutely prohibit slavery with- 
in them. But they did interfere with it — take control 
of it — even there, to a certain extent. In 1798, Con- 



302 Lincoln's speeches complete. 

gress organized the territory of Mississippi. In the 
act of organization, they prohibited the bringing of 
slaves into the territories, from any place without the 
United States, by line, and giving freedom to 
slaves so brought. This act passed both branches 
of Congress without yeas and nays. In that Congress 
were three of the ' 'thirty-nine" who framed the original 
Constitution. They were John Langdon, George Read, 
and Abraham Baldwin. They all, probably voted for 
it. Certainly they would have placed their opposition 
to it upon the record, if, in their understanding, any 
line dividing local from Federal authority, or anything 
in the Constitution, properly forbade the Federal Gov- 
ernment to control as to slavery in Federal territory. 

the LOUISIANA COUNTRY. 

In 1803, the Federal Government purchased the Lou- 
isiana country. Our former territorial acquisitions 
came from certain of our own states; but this Louisiana 
country was acquired from a foreign nation. In 1804, 
Congress gave a territorial organization to that part of 
it which now constitutes the State of Louisiana. New 
Orleans, laying within that part, was an old and com- 
paratively large city. There were other considerable 
towns and settlements, and slavery was extensively and 
thouroughly intermingled with the people. Congress 
did not, in the territorial act, prohibit slavery; but they 
did interfere with it — take control of it — in a more 
marked and extensive way than they did in the case of 
Mississippi. The substance of the provision therein 
made, in relation to slaves, was: 

First: That no slaves should be imported into the 



COOPER INSTITUTE SPEECH. 303 

territory from foreign parts. 

Second: That the slaves should be carried into it 
who had been imported into the United States since the 
first day of May, 1 798. 

Third: That no slave should be carried into it, ex- 
cept by the ov^ner, and for his own use as a settler; the 
penalty in all the cases being a fine upon the violator 
of the law, and freedom to the slave. 

This act, also, was passed without yeas and nays. In 
the Congress which passed it there were two of the 
''thirty-nine." They were Abraham Baldwin and Jon- 
athan Dayton. As stated in the case of Mississippi, it 
is probable they both voted for it; they would not have 
allowed it to pass without recording their opposition to 
it, if, in their understanding, it violated either the line 
properly dividing local from Federal authority or any 
provision of the Constitution. 

THE MISSOURI QUESTION. 

In 1819-20 came, and passed, the Missouri question. 
Many votes were taken by yeas and nays, in both 
branches of Congress, npon the various phases of the 
general question. Two of the "thirty-nine" — Rufus 
King and Charles Pinckney — were members of that Con- 
gress. Mr. King steadily voted for slavery prohibition 
and against all compromises, while Mr. Pinckney as 
steadly voted against slavery prohibition and against all 
compromises. By this Mr. King showed that in his 
understanding, no line divided local from Federal au- 
thority, nor anything in the Constitution, was violated 
by Congress prohibiting slavery in Federal territory; 
while Mr. Pinckney, by his votes, showed that in his 



304 LINCOLN S SPEECHES COMPLETE. 

understanding, there was some different reason for 
opposing such prohibition in the case. 

The cases I have mentioned are the only acts of the 
"thirty-nine," or any of them upon the direct issue, 
which I have been able to discover. 

SUMMARY VIEW OF THE SLAVERY QUESTION AS HELD BY THE 
FATHERS OF OUR COUNTRY. 

So enumerate the persons who thus acted, as being 
four in 1784, three in 1787, seventeen in 1789, three in 
1798, two in 1804, and two in 1819-20 there would be 
thirty-one of them. But this would be counting John 
Langdon, Roger Sherman, William Few, Rufus King, 
and George Read, each twice, and Abraham Baldwin 
four times. The true number of those of the * 'thirty- 
nine," whom I have shown to have acted upon the 
question, which, by the text, they understood better 
than we, is twenty-three, leaving sixteen not shown to 
have acted upon it in any way. 

Here, then, we have twenty-three of our **thirty-nine" 
fathers who framed the government under which we 
live, who have, upon their official responsibility and 
their corporal oaths, acted upon the very question 
which the text affirms they "understood just as well, 
and even better than we do now;" and twenty-one of 
them — a clear majority of the whole "thirty-nine" — so 
acting upon it as to make them guilty of gross political 
impropriety and willful perjury, if, in their understand- 
ing, any proper division between local and Federal au- 
thority, or anything in the Constitution they had made 
themselves and sworn to support, forbade the Federal 
Government to control, as to slavery, the Federal ter- 



COOPER INSTITUTE SPEECH. 305 

ntorles. Thus the tweny-one acted; and, as actions 
speak louder than words, so actions under such re- 
sponsibility speak still louder. 

Two of the twenty-three voted against Congressional 
prohibition of the slavery in the Federal territories, in 
the instances in which they acted upon the question. 
But for what reasons they so voted is not known. They 
may have done so because they thought a proper divis- 
ion of local from Federal authority, or some provision 
or principle of the Constitution, stood in the way; or 
they may, without any such question, have voted against 
the prohibition on what appeared to them to be suf- 
ficient grounds of expediency. No one who has sworn 
to support the Constitution can conscientiously vote for 
what he understands to be an unconstitutional measure 
however expedient he may think it; but one may and 
ought to vote against a measure which he deems con 
stitutional, if, at the same time, he deems it inexpedi- 
ent. It, therefore, would be unsafe to set down even 
the two who voted against the prohibition, as having 
done so because, in their understanding, any proper 
division of local from Federal authority, or anything in 
the Constitution, forbade the Federal Government to 
control, as to slavery, in territory. 

The remaining sixteen of the **thirty-nine," so far as 
I have discovered, have left no record of their understand- 
ing upon the direct question of Federal control of slavery 
in the Federal territories. But there is much reason to 
believe that their understanding upon that question 
would not have appeared different from that of their 
twenty-three compeers, had it been manifested at all. 



306 LINCOLN'S SPEECHES COMPLETE. 

For the purpose of adhering rigidly to the text, I have 
purposely omitted whatever understanding may have 
been manifested, by any person, hovv^ever distinguished, 
other than the "thirty-nine" fathers who framed the 
original Constitution; and, for the same reason, I have 
also omited whatever understanding may have been 
manifested by any of the "thirty-nine," even on 
any other phase of the general question of slavery. 
If we should look into their acts and declarations on 
these other phases, as the foreign slave trade, and the 
morality and policy of slavery generally, it would appear 
to us that on the direct question of Federal control of 
slavery in Federal territories, tht sixteen, if they had 
acted at all, would probably have acted just as the 
twenty-three did. Among that sixteen were several of 
the most noted antislavery men of those times — as Dr. 
Franklin, Alexander Hamilton, and Govenor Morris 
— while there was not one now known to have been 
'Otherwise, unless it may be John Rutledge, of South 
Carolina. 

The sum of the whole is, that of our "thirty-nine" 
tahei:s w^ho framed the original Constitution, twenty- 
©me - — ^a clear majority of the whole — certainly under- 
stood that no proper division of local from Federal author- 
ity, lior ;any ipart of the Constitution, forbade the Federal 
Govemiment ;t© ccontrol slavery in the Federal territories; 
while all the regst -pp-^bably had the same understanding. 
Such unquestionably, was the understanding of our 
fathers who framed the (Original Constitution; and the 
text affirms that ttey lundejstood the question better 
than we. 



COOPER INSTITUTE SPEECH. 30/ 

AMENDMENT TO THE CONSTITUTION. 

But, SO far, I have been considering the understand- 
ing of the question manifested by the framers of the 
original Constitution. In and by the original instru- 
ment, a mode v/as provided for amending it; and, as I 
have already stated, the present frame of government 
under which we live consists of that original and twelve 
amendatory articles framed and adopted since. Those 
who now insist that Federal control of slavery in 
Federal territories violates the Constitution, point us to 
the provisions which they suppose it thus violates; and, 
as I understand, they all fix upon provisions in these 
amendatory articles, and not in the original instrument. 
The Supreme Court, in the Dred Scott case, plant them- 
selves upon the fifth amendment, which provides that 
"no person shall be deprived of property without 
due process of law;" while Senator Douglas and his 
peculiar adherents plant themselves upon the tenth 
amendment, providing that ' 'the powers are granted by 
ihe Constitution are reserved to the states respectively 
and to the people. " 

Now, it so happens that these amendments were 
framed by the first Congress which sat under the Con- 
stitution — the identical Congress which passed the act 
already mentioned, enforcing the prohibition of slavery 
in the Northwestern Territory. Not only was it the 
same Congress, but they were the identical same indi- 
vidual men who, at the same session, and at the 
same time within the session, had under consideration, 
and in progress toward maturity, these constitutional 
^.mendments and this act prohibiting slavery in all the 



3o8 Lincoln's speeches complete. 

territory the nation then owned. The constitu- 

tional amendments were introduced before and pass- 
ed after the act enforcing the ordinance of 1787; so that 
during the whole pendency of the act to enforce the 
ordinance, the constitutional amendments were also 
pending. 

That Congress, consisting in all of seventy-six 
members, including sixteen of the framers of the original 
Constitution, as before stated, were pre-eminently our 
fathers who framed that part of the government under 
which we live which is now claimed as forbidding the 
Federal Government to control slavery in the Federal 
territories. 

Is it not a little presumptuous in any one at this day 
to affirm that the two things which that Congress de- 
liberately framed, and carried to maturity at the same 
time, are absolutely inconsistent with each other.? And 
does not such affirmation, from the same mouth, that 
those who did the two things alleged to be inconsistent 
understood whether they really were inconsistent better 
than we — better than he who affirms that they are in 
consistent.? 

It is surely safe to assume that the "thirty-nine"' 
framers of the original Constitution, and the seventy-six 
members of the Congress which framed the amendnaents 
thereto, taken together, do certainly include those- who- 
may be fairly called our fathers who framed the govern- 
ment under which we live. " And so assumamg, I defy 
any man to show that any one of them ever in his whole 
life declared that, in his understanding, any proper- 
division of local from Federal auithority, or any part o£ 



COOPER INSTITUTE SPEECH. 309 

the Constitution, forbade the Federal Government to 
control as to slavery in the Federal territories. 

I GO A STEP FARTHER. 

I go a step farther. I defy any one to show that any 
living man in the whole world ever did, prior to the be- 
ginning of the present century, (and I might almost say 
prior to the beginning of the last half of the present 
century,) declare that, in his understanding, any proper 
division of local from Federal authority, or any part of 
the Constitution, forbade the Federal Government to 
control as to slavery in the Federal territories. To 
those who now so declare, I give, not only ' 'our fathers 
who framed the government under which we live," but 
with them all other living men within the century in which 
it was framed, among whom to search, and they shall 
not be able to find the evidence of a single man agreeing 
with them. 

LET THERE BE NO MISUNDERSTANDING. 

Now, and here, let me guard a little against being 
misunderstood. I do not mean to say we are bound to 
follow implicitly in whatever our fathers did. To do so 
would be to discard all the lights of current experience — 
to reject all progress — all improvement. What I do say 
is, that if we would supplant the opinions and policy of 
our fathers in any case, we should do so upon evidence 
so conclusive, and argument so clear, that even their 
great authority, fairly considered and weighed, can not 
stand; and most suredly not in a case whereof we our- 
selves declare they understood the question better than 
we. 

If any man, at this day, sincerely believes that a pro- 



3IO Lincoln's speeches complete. 

per division of local from Federal authority, or any part 
of the Constitution, forbids the Federal Government to 
control as to slavery in the Federal territoriesy he is 
right to say so, and to enforce his position by all truth- 
ful evidence and fair argument which he can. But he 
has no right to mislead others, who have less access to 
history and less leisure to study it, into the false belief 
that ''our fathers, who framed the government under 
which we live," were of the same opinion — thus substi^ 
tuting falsehood and deception for truthful evidence and 
fair argument. If any man at this day sincerely believes 
' 'our fathers, who framed the government under which 
we live," used and applied principles, in other cases, 
which ought to have led them to understand that a prop- 
er division of local from Federal authority, or some part 
of the Constitution, forbids the Federal Government to 
control slavery in the Federal territories, he is right to 
say so. But he should, at the same time, brave the re- 
sponsibility of declaring that, in his opinion, he under- 
stands their principles better than they did themselves; 
and especially should he not shirk that responsibility by 
asserting that they "understood the question just as well, 
and even better, than we do now." 

But enough. Let all who believe that ' 'our fathers, 
who framed the government under which we live, un- 
derstood this question just as well, and even better, than 
we do now," speak as they spoke, and act as they acted 
upon it. This is all Republicans ask — all Republicans 
desire — in relation to slavery. As those fathers marked 
it, so let it be again marked, as an evil not to be ex- 
tended, but to be tolerated and protected only because. 



COOPER INSTITUTE SPEECH. 3 II 

of and so far as its actual presence among us makes that 
toleration and protection a necessity. Let all the guar- 
antees those fathers gave it be, not grudgingly, but fully 
and fairly maintained. For this Republicans contend, 
and with this, so far as I know or believe, they will be 
content. 

A FE^V WORDS FROM MR. LINCOLN TO THE SOUTHERN 
PEOPLE. 

And now, if they would listen — as I suppose they 
will not — I would address a few words to the Southern 
people. 

I would say to them: You consider 3'ourselves a reason- 
able and just people, and I consider that in the general 
qualities of reason and justice you are not inferior to any 
other people. Still, when you speak of us Republicans 
you do so only to denounce us as reptiles, or, at the 
best, as no better than outlaws. You will grant a hear- 
ing to pirates or murderers, but nothing like it to ''Black 
Republicans." In all your contentions with one another, 
each of you deems an unconditional condemnation of 
"Black Republicanism" as the first thing to be attended 
to. Indeed, such condemnation of us seems to be an in- 
dispensable prerequisite — license, so to speak — among 
you, to be admitted or permitted to speak at all. 

Now, can you, or not, be prevailed upon to pause and 
to consider whether this is quite just to us, or even to 
yourselves.-* 

"BRING FORWARD YOUR CHARGES." 

Bring forward your charges and specifications, and 
then be patient long enough to hear us deny or justify. 
You say we are sectional. We deny it. That makes 



312 LINCOLN'S SPEECHES COMPLETE. 

an issue; and the burden of proof is upon you. You pro- 
duce your proof; and what is it.? Why that our party 
has no existence in your section — gets no votes in your 
section. The fact is substantially true; but does it prove 
the issue.'' If it does, then, in case we should, without 
change of principle, begin to get votes in your section, 
we should thereby cease to be sectional. You can not 
escape this conclusion; and yet, are you willing to abide 
by it.'' If you are, you will probably soon find that we 
have ceased to be sectional, for we shall get votes in your 
section this very year. You will then begin to discover, 
as the truth plainly is, that your proof does not touch 
the issue. 

The fact that we get no votes in your section is a fact 
of your making, and not of ours. And if there be fault 
in that fact that fault is primarily yours, and remains so 
until you show that we repel you by some wrong principle 
or practice. If we do repel you by any wrong principle 
or practice, the fault is ours; but this brings you to where 
you ought to have started — to a discussion of the right 
or wrong of our principle. If our principle, put in prac- 
tice, would WTong your section for the benefit of ours, or 
for any other object, then our principle, and we with it, 
are sectional, and are justly opposed and denounced as 
such. Meet us, then, on the question of whether our 
principle, put in practice, would wrong your section; and 
so meet it as if it were possible that something may be 
said on our side. Do you accept the challenge.'' No.'' 
Then you really believe that the principle which our 
fathers, who framed the government under which we 
live, thought so clearly right as to adopt it, and indorse 



COOPER INSTITUTE SPEECH. 3 I 3 

it again and again, upon their official oaths, is, in fact, 
so clearly wrong as to demand your condemnation with- 
out a moment's consideration. 

COULD GEN. WASHINGTON SPEAK, WHAT WOULD HE SAY.^ 

Some of you delight to flaunt in our faces the warning 
against sectional parties given by Washington in his 
Farewell Address. Less than eight years before Wash- 
ington gave that warning, he had, as President of the 
United States, approved and signed an act of Congress 
enforcing the prohibition of slavery in the Northwestern 
Territory, which act embodied the policy of the govern- 
ment upon that subject, up to and at the very moment 
he penned that warning; and about one year after he 
penned it, he wrote Lafayette that he considered that 
prohibition a wise measure, expressing, in the same con- 
nection, his hope that we should some time have a con- 
federacy of free states. 

Bearing this in mind, and seeing that sectionalism has 
since arisen on this same subject, is that warning a 
weapon in your hands against us, or in our hands against 
you.'^ Could Washington himself speak, would he cast 
the blame of that sectionalism upon us, who sustain his 
policy, or upon you who repudiate it.!* We respect that 
warning of Washington, and we commend it to you, to- 
gether with his example pointing to the right applica- 
tion of it. 

WHAT IS CONSERVATISM.^ 

But yon say you are conservative — eminently con- 
servative — while we are revolutionary, destructive or 
something of the sort. What is conservatism? Is it 



314 LINCOLN'S SPEECHES COMPLETE. 

not adherence to the old and tried, against the new and 
untried? We stick to contend for the identical old pol- 
icy, on the point of controversy, which was adopted by 
our fathers who framed the government under which we 
live; while you with one accord reject, and scout, and 
spit upon that old policy, and insist upon substituting 
something new. True, you disagree among yourselves 
as to what that substitute shall be. You have consider- 
able variety of new propositions and plans, but you are 
unanimous in rejecting and denouncing the old policy of 
the fathers. 

Some of you are for reviving the foreign slave trade; 
some for a congressional slave code for the territories; 
some for Congress forbidding the territories to prohibit 
slavery within their limits; some for maintaintng slavery 
in the territories through the judiciary; some for the 
"gur-reat pur-rinciple" that "if one man would enslave 
another, no third man should object," fantastically called 
'^popular sovereignty;" but never a man among you in 
favor of Federal prohibition of slavery in Federal terri- 
tories, according to the practice of our fathers who framed 
the government under which we live. Not one of all 
your various plans can show a precedent or an advocate 
in the century within which our government originated. 
Consider, then, whether your claim of conservatism for 
yourselves, and your charge of destructiveness against 
us, are based on the most clear and staple foundations. 

WE DENY IT. 

Again, you say we have made the slavery question 
more prominent than it formerly was. We deny it. We 
admit that it is more prominent, but we deny that we 



COOPER INSTITUTE SPEECH. 315 

made it so. It was not we, but you, who discarded the; 
old policy of the fathers. We resisted, and still resist,. 
your innovation; and thence comes the greater promi- 
nence of the question. Would you have that question 
reduced to its former proportions.? Go back to that old 
policy. What has been will be again, under the same 
conditions. If you would have the peace of the old 
times, readopt the precepts and policy of the old times. 
You charge that we stir up insurrections among your 
slaves . We deny it; and what is your proof.? Harper's 
Ferry! John Brown! John Brown was no Republican; 
and you have failed to implicate a single Republican in 
his Harper's Ferry enterprise. If any member of our 
party is guilty in that matter, you know it or you do not 
know it. If you do know it, you are inexcusable to not 
designate the man and prove the fact. If you do not 
know it, you are inexcusable to assert it, and especially 
to persist in the assertion after ycu have tried and failed 
to make the proof. You need not be told that persist- 
ing in a charge which one does not know to be true, is 
simply malicious slander. 

' 'WE DO NOT BELIEVE IT. " 

Some of you admit that no Republican designedly 
aided or encouraged the Harper's Ferry affair, but still 
insist that our doctrines and declarations necessarily lead 
to such results. We do not believe it. We know we 
hold to no doctrines, and make no declarations which, 
were not held to and made by our fathers who framed 
the government under which we live. You never dealt 
fairly by us in relation to this affair. When it occurred, 
some important state elections were near at hand, and 



3i6 Lincoln's speeches complete. 

you were in evident glee with the beHef that, by charging 
the blame upon us you could get an advantage of us in 
those elections. The elections came, and your expecta- 
tions were not quite fulfilled. Every Republican man 
knew that, as to himself at least, your charge was a slan- 
der, and he was not much inclined by it to cast his vote 
in your favor. Republican doctrines and declarations 
are accompanied with a continual protest against any in- 
terference whatever with your slaves, or with you about 
your slaves. Surely this does not encourege them to re- 
volt. True, we do, in common with our fathers who 
framed the government under which we live, declare our 
belief that slavery is wrong; but the slaves do not hear 
us declare even this. For anything we say or do, the 
slaves would scarcely know there was a Republican party. 
I believe they would not, in fact, generally know it but 
for your misrepresentations of us in their hearing. In 
your political contests among yourselves, each faction 
charges the other with sympathy with Black Republi- 
canism; and then, to give point to the charge, defines 
Black Republicanism to simply be insurrection, blood and 
and thunder among the slaves. 

INSURRECTIONS INPOSSIBLE. 

Slave insurrections are no more common now than they 
were before the Republican party was organized. What 
induced the Southampton insurrection, twenty-eight 
years ago, in which at least three times as many lives 
were lost as at Harper's Ferry.'' You can scarcely stretch 
your very elastic fancy to the conclusion that Southampton 
was got up by Black Republicanism. In the present 
state of things in the United States, I do not think* a 



COOPER INSTITUTE SPEECH. 3 I J 

general, or even a very extensive slave insurrection is 
possible. The indispensable concert of action cannot be 
attained. The slaves have no means of rapid commun- 
ication; nor can incendiary free men, black or white, 
supply it. The explosive materials are everywhere in 
parcels; but there neither are, nor can be supplied, the 
indispensable connecting trains. 

Much is said by Southern people about the affection of 
slaves for their masters and mistresses; and a part of it, 
at least, is true. A plot for an uprising could scarcely 
be devised and communicated to twenty individuals be- 
fore some one of them, to save the life of a favorite mas- 
ter or mistress, would divulge it. This is the rule; and 
the slave revolution in Hayti was not an exception to it, 
but a case occuring under peculiar circumstances. The 
gunpowder plot of British history, though not connected 
with slaves, was more in point. In that case only about 
twenty were admitted to the secret; and yet one of them, 
in his anxiety to save a friend, betrayed the plot to that 
friend, and, by consequence, averted the calamity. 

Occasional poisonings from the kitchen, and open or 
stealthy assassinations in the field, and local revolts ex- 
tending to a score or so, will continue to occur as the 
natural results of slavery; but no general insurrection of 
slaves, as I think, can happen in this oountry for a long 
time. Whoever much fears, or much hopes, for such an 
event, will be alike disappointed. 

In the language of Mr. Jefferson, uttered many years 
ago, "It is still in our power to direct the process of 
emancipation and deportation peaceably, and in such 
slow degrees, as that the evil will wear off insensibly; 



3i8 -Lincoln's speeches Complete. 

and their places be, pari passu, filled' up by free white 
laborers. If, on the contrary, it is left to force itself on^ 
human nature must shudder at the prospect held up." 

Mr. Jefferson did not mean to say, nor do I, that the 
power of emancipation is in the Federal Government. 
He spoke of Virginia; and as to the power of emancipa- 
tion, I speak of the slaveholding states only. 

The Federal Government, however, as we insist, has 
the power of restraining the extension of the institution 
— the power to insure that a slave insurrection shall 
never occur on any American soil which is now free 
from slavery. 

JOHN BROWN. 

John Brown's effort was peculiar. It was not a slave 
insurrection. It was an attempt by white men to get 
up a revolt among slaves, in which the slaves refused to 
participate. In fact, it was so absurd that the slaves, 
with all their ignorance, saw plainly enough it could not 
succeed. That affair, in its philosophy, corresponds 
with the many attempts, related in history, at the assas- 
sination of kings and emperors. An enthusiast broods 
over the oppression of a people till he fancies himself 
commissioned by Heaven to liberate them. He ventures 
the attempt, which ends in little else than in his own 
execution. Orsini's attempt on Louis Napoleon, and 
John Brown's attempt at Harper's Ferry, were, in their 
philosophy, precisely the same. The eagerness to cast 
blame on old England in the one case, and on new Eng- 
land in the other, does not disprove the sameness of the 
two things. 

And how much would it avail you if you could, by the 



COOPER INSTITUTE SPEECH. 319 

use of John Brown, Helper s book, and the like, break up 
the Republican organization? Human action can be 
modified to some extent, but human nature cannot be 
changed. There is a judgement and a feeling against 
slavery in this nation, which cast at least a million and 
a half of votes! You cannot destroy that judgement and 
feeling — that sentiment — by breaking up the political 
organization which rallies around it. You can scarcely 
scatter and disperse an army which has been formed into 
order in the face of your heaviest fire; but if you could, 
how much would you gain by forcing the sentiment 
which created it out of the peaceful channel of the ballot- 
box into some other channel.^* What would that other 
channel probably he? Would the number of John Brown's 
be lessened or enlarged by the operation? 

''RULE OR RUIN." 

But you will break up the Union, rather than submit 
to a denial of your Constitutional rights. 

That has a somewhat reckless sound; but it would be 
palliated, if not fully justified, were we proposing, by the 
mere force of numbers, to deprive you of some right, 
plainly written down in the Constitution. But we are 
proposing no such thing. 

When you make these declarations, you have a specific 
and well understood allusion to an assumed Constitu- 
tional right of yours, to take slaves into the Federal Ter- 
ritories, and to l;old them there as property. But no 
such right is specifically written in the Constitution. 
That instrument is literally silent about any such right. 
We, on the contrary, deny that such a right has any ex- 
istence in the Constitution, even by implication; 



320 Lincoln's speeches complete. 

Your purpose, then, plainly stated, is, that you will 
destroy the government unless you be allowed to con- 
strue and enforce the Constitution as you please, on all 
points in dispute between you and us. You will rule or 
ruin in all events. This, plainly stated, is your lan- 
guage to us. 

*'NOT quite so." 

Perhaps you will say the Supreme Court has decided 
the disputed constitutional question in you favor. • Not 
quite so. But, waving the lawyers' distinction between 
dictum and decision, the court have decided the question 
for you in a sort of way. The court have substantially 
said it is your constitutional right to take slaves into 
the Federal territories, and to hold them there as prop- 
erty. 

When I say the decision was made in a sort of way, I 
mean it was made in a divided court, by a bare majority 
of the judges, and they not quite agreeing with one an- 
other in the reasons for making it; that it is so made as 
that its avowed supporters disagree with one another 
about its meaning; and that it was mainly based upon a 
mistaken statement of fact — the statement in the opinion 
that ' 'the right of property in a slave is distinctly and 
expressly affirmed in the Constitution." 

An inspection of the Constitution will show that the 
right of property in a slave is not distinctly and expressly 
affirmed in it. Bear in mind the judges ' do not pledge 
their judicial opinion that such right is implicitly affirm- 
ed in the Constitution; but they pledge their veracity 
that it is distinctly and expressly affirmed there — "dis- 
tinctly" — that is, not mingled with anything else — **ex- 



COOPER INSTITUTE SPEECH. 3 2 I 

pressly" — that is, in words meaning just that, without 
the aid of any inference, and susceptible of no other 
meaning. 

If they had only pledged their judicial opinion, that 
such right is affirmed in the instrument by imphcation, 
it would be open to others to show that, either the word 
"slave" nor "slavery" is to be found in the Constitu- 
tion, nor the word "property" even, in any connection 
with language alluding to the things slave or slavery, 
and that wherever, in that instrument, the slave is allud- 
ed to, he is called "a person;" and wherever his master's 
legal right in relation to him is alluded to, it is spoken of 
as "service or labor due," as a "debt" payable in service 
or labor. 

Also, it would be open to show, by cotemporaneous 
history, that this mode of alluding to slaves and slavery, 
instead of speaking of them, was employed on purpose to 
exclude from the Constitution the idea that there could 
be property in man. 

To show all this is easy and certain. 

When the obvious mistake of the judges shall be 
brought to their notice, is it not reasonable to expect that 
they will withdraw the mistaken statement, and reconsider 
the conclusion based upon it.? 

'And then it is to be remembered that "our fathers, who 
framed the government under which we live" — the men 
who made the Constitution — decided this same constitu- 
tional question in our favor, long ago — decided it with- 
out a divison among themselves about the meaning of it 
after it was made, and so far as any evidence is left, 
without basing it upon any mistaken statements of facts. 



322 LINCOLN'S SPEECHES COMPLETE. 

Under all these circumstances, do you really feel your- 
selves justified to break up this government, unless such 
a court decision as yours is shall be at once submitted to 
as a conclusive and final rule of political action? 

But you will not abide the election of a Republican 
President. In that supposed event, you say, you will 
destroy the Union; and then, you say, the great crime of 
having destroyed it will be upon us.? 

That is cool. A highwayman holds a pistol to my ear, 
and mutters through his teeth, "Stand and deliver, or I 
shall kill you, and then you will be a murderer!" 

To be sure, what the robber demanded of me — my 
money — was my own, and I had a clear right to keep it; 
but it was no more my own than my vote is my own; and 
the threat of death to me, to extort my money, and the 
threat of destruction to the Union, to extort my vote, 
can scarcely be distinguished in principle. 

A FEW WORDS TO REPUBLICANS. 

A few words now to Republicans. It is exceedingly 
desirable that all parts of this great confederacy shall be 
at peace, and in harmony, one with another. Let us Re- 
publicans do our part to have it so. Even though much 
provoked, let us do nothing through passion and ill tem- 
per. Even though the Southern people will not so much 
as listen to us, let us calmy consider their demands, and 
yield to them if, in our deliberate view of our duty, we 
possibly can. Judging by all they say and do, and by 
the subject and nature of their controversy with us, let 
determine, if we can, what will satisfy them. 

Will they be satisfied if the territories be uncondition- 
ally surrendered to them.? We know they will not. In 



COOPER INSTITUTE SPEECH. 323 

all their present complaints against us, the territories 
are scarcely mentioned. Invasions and insurrections 
are the rage now. Will it satisfy them if, in the future, 
we have nothing to do with invasions and insurrections.^ 
We know it wilf not. We so know because we know we 
never had anything to do with invasions and insurrec- 
tions; and yet this total abstaining does not exempt us 
from the charge and the denunciation. 

The question recurs, what will satisfy them.? Simply 
this: We must not only let them alone, but we must, 
somehow, convince them that we do^ let them alone. 
This, we know by experience, is no easy task. We have 
been so trying to convince them from the very beginning 
of our organization, but with no success. In all our 
platform and speeches, we have constantly protested our 
purpose to let them alone; bnt this has had no tendency 
to convince them. Alike unavailing to convince them is 
the fact that they have never detected a man of us in any 
attempt to disturb them. 

These natural and apparently adequate means all fail- 
ing, what will convince them.? This, and this only: 
Cease to call slavery wrong, and join them in calling it 
right. And this must be done thoroughly — done in acts 
as well as words. Silence will not be tolerated — we 
must place ourselves avowedly with them. Douglas's 
new sedition law must be enacted, and enforced, sup- 
pressing all declarations that slavery is wrong, whether 
made in politics, in presses, in pulpits, or in private. 
We must arrest and return their fugitive slaves with 
greedy pleasure. We must pull down our Free State 
Constitutions. The whole atmosphere must be disinfect- 



324 Lincoln's speeches complete. 

ed from all taint of opposition to slavery, before they 
will cease to believe that all their troubles proceed from 
us. 

I am quite aw^are they do not state their case precisely 
in this v^^ay. Most of them v^ould probably say to us, 
"Let us alone, do nothing to us, and say what you 
please about slavery." But we do let them alone — have 
never disturbed them — so that, after all, it is what we 
say which dissatisfies them. They will continue to ac- 
cuse us of doing until we cease saying. 

I am also aware they have not, as yet, in terms, de- 
manded the overthrow of our Free State Constitutions. 
Yet those Constitutions declare the wrong of slavery 
with more solemn emphasis than do all other sayings 
against it; and when all other sayings shall have been si- 
lenced, the overthrow of these Constitutions will be de- 
manded, and nothing be left to resist the demand. It 
is nothing to the contrary that they do not demand the 
whole of this just now. Demanding w^hat they do, and 
for the reason they do, they can voluntarily stop no- 
where short of this consummation. Holding, as they do, 
that slavery is morally right and socially elevating, they 
can not cease to demand a full national recognition of it, 
as a legal right and a social blessing. 

Nor can we justifiably withhold this on any ground, 
save our conviction that slavery is wrong. If slavery is 
right, all words, acts, laws, and Constitutions against it, 
are themselves wrong, and should be silenced and swept 
away, If it is right, we can not justly object to its 
nationality — its universality, if, it is wrong, they can not 
justly insist upon its extension — its enlargement. All 



COOPER INSTITUTE SPEECH, 32$ 

they ask we could readily grant, if they thought slavery 
right; all we ask they could readily grant, if they thought 
it wrong. 

Their thinking it right, and our thinking it wrong, 
is the precise fact upon which depends the whole con- 
troversy. Thinking it right, as they do, they are not to 
blame for desiring its full recognition, as being right: but 
thinking it wrong, as we do, can we yield to them.!^ Can 
we cast our votes with their view and against our own? 
in view of our moral, social, and political responsibility, 
can we do this? 

LET us DO OUR DUTY AS WE UNDETSTAND IT. 

Wrong as we may think slavery is, we can yet afford 
to let it alone where it is, because that much is due to 
the necessity arising from its actual presence in the na- 
tion; but can we, while our votes will prevent it, allow it 
to spread into the national territories, and to overrun us 
here in these free states? 

If our sense of duty forbids this, then let us stand by 
our duty fearlessly and effectively. Let us be diverted 
by none ot those sophistical contrivances wherewith we 
are so industriously plied and belabored — contrivances, 
such as groping for some middle ground between the 
right and the wrong, vain as the search for a man who 
should be neither a living man nor a dead man — such as 
Union appeals, beseeching true Union men to yield to 
disunionists, reversing the Divine rule, and calling, 
not the sinners, but the righteous to repentance — such 
as invocations of Washington — imploring men to un- 
say what Washington said — and undo what Washing- 
ton did. 



326 Lincoln's speeches complete. 

Neither let us be slandered from our duty by false ac- 
cusations against us, nor frightened from it by menaces 
of destruction to the government, nor of dungeons to 
ourselves. 

Let us have faith that right makes might; and in that 
faith let us, to the end dare to do our duty as we under- 
stand it. 



RAILS AND MAKINCx RAILS. 

[Delivered at the State Republican Convention in 
Decatur 111., May 9, i860. Mr. Lincoln had been car- 
ried bodily upon the stage, and soon "Old John Hanks" 
(a democrat) came into the midst of the assemblage 
bearing on his shoulders "two small triangular heart 
rails" surmounted by a banner with this inscription: 
"two rails from a lot made by Abraham Lincoln and 
John Hanks, in the Sangamon bottom, in the year 1830,' 
It is said that Lincoln blushed, but seemed to shake with 
inward laughter. " Great were the shouts and calls for 
Lincoln] 

Gentlemen: — I suppose you want to know something 
about those things (pointing to old John and the rails.) 
Well, the truth is, John Hanks and I did make 
rails in the Sangamon bottom. I don't know whether we 
made those rails or not; the fact is I don't think they 
are a credit to the maker (laughing as he spoke), but I do 
know this; I made rails then, and I think I could make 
better ones than these now. 



FIRST TALK WITH FRIENDS AFTER RECEIVING 
TELEGRAM OF HIS FIRST NOMINATION. 

[This telegram was received in the Journal Office at 
Springfield. Immediately everybody wanted to shake his 
hand, and so long as he was willing, they continued to 
congratulate him.] 

Gentlemen: (with a twinkle in his eye,) you had bet- 
ter come up and shake my hand while you can; hon- 
ors elevate some men, you know. * * * Well, gentle- 
men there, is a little short woman at our house, who 
is probably more interested in this dispatch than I am; 
and if you will excuse me, I will take it up and let 
her see it. 



LINCOLN'S FIRST SPEECH AFTER HIS FIRST 
NOMINATION. 

[Delivered to the Committee, at Springfield, 111,. May 
19, i860.] 

MR. CHAIRMAN AND GENTLEMEN OF THE COMMITTEE: 

I tender to you, and through you to the Republican 
National Convention, and all the people represented in 
it, my profoundest thanks for the high honor done me, 
which you now formally announce. Deeply and even 
painfully sensible of the great responsibility which I 
could almost wish had fallen upon some one of the far 

(337) 



LINCOLN S SPEECHES COMPLETE. 



328 



more eminent men and experienced Statesmen whose 
distinguished names were before the convention, I shall 
by your leave, consider more fully the resolutions of the 
Convention, denominated the platform, and, without 
unnecessary and unreasonable delay, respond to you Mr. 
chairman in writing, not doubting that the platform will 
be found satisfactory and the nomination gratefully ac- 
cepted. And now I will not longer defer the pleasure 
of taking you, and each of you by the hand. 



<X '^ T^ 




WAY-SIDE SPEECHES. 

DELIVERED BY THE PRESIDENT ELECT, ON HIS WAY FROM 

SPRINGFIELD, ILL., TO WASHINGTON, D. C. FOR 

HIS FIRST INAUGURATION AS PRESIDENT 

OF THE UNITED STATES. 



BIDDING HOME FRIENDS ADIEU. 

(Delivered at Springfield, III, Feb, ii, 1861, 
the day on which Mr. Lincoln started for Washington.) 

Friends: — No one who has never been placed in a like 
position can understand my feelings at this hour, nor the 
oppressive sadness I feel at this parting. More than a 
quarter of a century I have lived among you, and dur- 
ing all that time I have received nothing but kindness 
at your hands. 

Here I have lived from my youth, until now I am an 
old man. Here the most sacred ties of earth were as- 
sumed. Here all my children were born, and here one 
of them lies buried. To you dear friends, I owe all that 
I have, all that I am. All the strange checkered past 
seems to crowd now upon my mind. To-day I leave you. 
I go to assume a task more difficult than that which de- 
volved upon Washington. Unless the Great God who 
inspired him, shalt be with and inspire me, I must fail; 
but if the same Omniscient mind and Almighty arm that 
directed and protected him, shall guide and support me, 

(329) 



330 LINCOLN S SPEECHES COMPLETE. 

I shall not fail, — I shall succeed. Let us all pray that 
the God of our fathers may not forsake us now. To Him 
I commend you all. 

Permit me to ask, that, with equal sincerity and faith, 
you will invoke His wisdom and guidance for me. With 
these few words I must leave you: for how long I know 
not. 

Friends, one and all, I must now bid you an affection- 
ate farewell. 



SPEECH AT TOLONO, ILL. 

Fellov^-Citizens: — I am leaving you on an errand of 
national importance, attended, as you are aware, with 
considerable difficulties. Let us believe, as some poet 
has expressed it, ''Behind the cloud the sun is still 
shining." I bid you an affectionate farewell. 



SPEECH AT INDIANAPOLIS. 

(Delivered from the Balcony of the Bates House on 
his arrival.) 
Governor Morton and fellow citizens of the state 
OF INDIANA: — Most heartily do I thank you for this mag- 
nificent reception, and while I cannot take to myself 
any share of the compliment thus paid, more than that 
which pertains to a mere instrument, Ian accidental in- 
strument, perhaps I should say, of a great cause, I yet 



AT INDIANAPOLIS. 331 

must look upon it as a most magnificent reception, and 
as such most heartily thank you for it. 

THE UNION. 

You have been pleased to address yourself to me in 
behalf of this Glorious Union in which we live, in all of 
which you have my hearty sympathy, and as far as may 
be in my power, will have, one and inseparably, my 
hearty consideration. While I do not expect upon this 
occasion, or until I get to Washington, to attempt any^ 
lengty speech, I will only say to the salvation of the 
Union there needs but one single thing — the hearts of a 
people like yours. The people when they rise in mass 
in behalf of the Union and the liberties of their country, 
truly may it be said, "the gates of hell cannot prevail 
against them." In all trying positions in which I shall 
be placed — and undoubtedly I shall be placed in many 
such — my reliance will be placed upon you — and the 
people of the United States; and I wish you to remem- 
ber, now and forever, that it is your business, and not 
mine; that if the union of these States, and the liberties 
of this people shall be lost, it is but little to any one man 
of fifty-two years of age, but a great deal to the thirty- 
millions of people who inhabit these United States, and 
to their posterity in all coming time. It is your business 
to rise up and preserve the Union and liberty for your- 
selves, and not for me. 

I desire they should be constitutionally performed. I, 
as already intended, am but an accidental instrument, 
tomporary, and to serve but for a limited time; and I 
appeal to you again, to constantly bear in mind that 



332 LINCOLN'S SPEECHES CQMPLETE. 

with you and not with politicians, not with Presidents, 
nor with office seekers, but with you is the question, shall 
the Union and shall the liberties of the country be pre- 
j served to the latest generation. 



SECOND SPEECH AT INDIANAPOLIS. 

(Delivered at the Bates House in the evening.) 
Fellow Citizens of the State of Indiana. : — I am 
here to thank you much for this magnificent welcome, 
and still more for the generous support given by your 
state to the political canse, which I think is the true and 
just cause of the whole country and the whole world. 
Solomon says there is a time to keep silence;' and when 
men wrangle by the mouth, with no certainty that they 
mean the same thing while using the same words, it per- 
haps were as well if they would keep silence. The words 
'coercion'and 'invasion' are much used in these days, and 
often with some temper and hot blood. Let us make 
sure, if we can, that we do not misunderstand the mean- 
ing of those who use them. Let us get the exact defini- 
tion of these words, not from dictionaries, but from the 
men themselves, who certainly deprecate the things they 
would represent by the use of the words. 

COERCION invasion. 

What, then, is 'coercion?' What is 'invasion.?' Would 
the marching of an army into South Carolina, without 
the consent of her people, and with hostile intent towards 
them, be invasion. M certainly think it would, and it 
would be 'coercion' also if the South CaroHnians were 



AT INDIANAPOLIS. 33^ 

forced to submit. But if the United States should mere- 
ly hold and retake its own forts and other property, and 
collect the duties on foreign importations, or even with- 
hold the mails from places where they were habitually 
violated, would any or all of these things be 'invasion or 
'coercion?' Do our professed lovers of the Union, who 
spitefully resolve that they will resist coercion and inva- 
sion, understand that such things as these, on the part of 
the United States, would be coercion or invasion of a 
state? If so, their idea of means to preserve the object of 
their great affection would seem to be exceedingly thin 
and airy. If sick, the little pills of the homeopathist 
would be much too large for it to swallow. In their view, 
the Union as a family relation, would seem to be no reg- 
ular marriage, but rather a sort of 'free-love arangement, 
to be maintained on passional attraction. 

SACREDNESS OF A STATE. 

By the way, in what consists the special sacredness of 
a state? I speak not of the position assigned to a state 
in the Union by the Constitution, for that is the 
bond we all recognize. That position, however, a state 
cannot carry out of the Union with it. I speak of that 
assumed primary right of a state to rule all which is less 
than itself, and to ruin all which is larger than itself. If 
a state and country, in a given case, should be equal in 
extent of territory and equal in number of inhabitants, 
in what, as a matter of principle, is the state better than 
the country? Would an exchage of name be an exchange 
of rights? Upon what principle, upon what rightful 
principle, may a state, being no more than one-fiftieth 



334 LINCOLNS SPEECHES COMPLETE. 

part of the nation in soil and population, break up the 
nation, and then coerce a proportionably larger subdivis- 
ion of itself in the most arbitrary way? What mysterious 
right to play tyrant is conferred on a district of country 
with its people, by merely calling it a state? 

Fellow-citizens, I am not asserting anything. I am 
merely asking (questions for you to consider. And now 
allow me to bid you farewell. " 



SPEECH AT CINCINNATI. 

(Delivered at the Burnett House, Feb 12, 1861.) 
"MR. MAYOR, LADIES AND GENTLEMEN: Twenty-fOur 

hours ago, at the Capital of Indiana, I said to myself, I 
have never seen so many people assembled together in 
winter weather.' I am no longer able to say that. But 
it is what might reasonably be expected — that this 
great city of Cincinnati would thus acquit herself on such 
an occasion. My friends, I am entirely overwhelmed by 
the magnificence of the reception which has been given, 
I will not say to me, but to the President elect of the 
United States of America. Most heartily do I thank you 
one and all for it. 

I am reminded by the address of your worthy Mayor, 
that this reception is given not by one political party; 
and even if I had not been so reminded by His Honor, 
I could not have failed to know the fact by the extent of 
the multitude I see before me now. I could not look up- 
on this vast assemblage without being made aware that 
all parties were united in this reception. This is as it 
should be. It is as it should have been if Senator Doug- 



IN CINCINNATL 335 

las had been elected; it is as it should have been if Mr. 
Bell had been elected; as it should have been if Mr. 
Breckinridge had been elected; as it should ever be when 
any citizen of the United States is constitutionally elect- 
ed President of the United States. 

FREE INSTITUTIONS. 

Allov;^ me to say that I think what has occurred here 
to-day could not have occurred in any other country on 
the face of the globe, without the influence of the free 
institutions which we have unceasingly enjoyed for three- 
quarters of a century. There is no country where the 
people can turn out and enjoy this day precisely as they 
please, save under the benign influence of the free insti- 
tutions of our land. I hope that although we have some 
threatening national difficulties now, while these free in- 
stitutions shall continue to be the enjoyment of millions 
of free people of the United States, we will see repeated 
every four years what we now witness. In a few short 
years I and every other individual man who is now living 
will pass away. I hope that our national difficulties will 
also pass away, and I hope we shall see in the streets of 
Cincinnati — good old Cincinnati — for centuries to come, 
once every four years, the people give such a reception 
as this to the constitutionally elected President of the 
whole United States. I hope you will all join in that re- 
ception, and that you shall also welcome your brethren 
across the river to participate in it. We will welcome 
them in every state in the Union, no matter where 
they are from. From away South we shall extend to 
them a cordial good will, when our present difficulties 



33^ Lincoln's speeches complete. 

shall have been forgotten and blown to the winds for- 
ever. 

TO THE KENTUCKIANS. 

I have spoken but once before this in Cincinnati. That 
that was a year previous to the late presidential election. 
On that occasion, in a playful manner but with sincere 
words, 1 addressed much of what I said to the Kentuck- 
ians. I gave my opinion that we as republicans would 
ultimately beat them as Democrats, but that they could 
postpone that result longer by nominating Senator 
Douglas for the presidency than thqy could any other 
way. They did not in the true sense of the word nomi- 
nate Douglas, and the result has come certainly as soon 
as I expected. I also told them how I expected they 
would be treated after they should have been beaten; and 
I now wish to call or recall their attention to what I 
then said upon that subject. I then said: 'when we do 
as we say, beat you, you perhaps will want to know 
what we will do with you. We mean to treat you as 
near as we possibiy can as Washington, Jefferson and 
Madison treated you. We mean to leave you alone and 
in no way interfere with your institutions, to abide by all 
and every compromise of the Constitution; and, in a 
word, comming back to the original proposition to treat 
you as far as degenerate men, if we have degenerated, 
may, according to the examples of those noble fathers, 
Washington, Jefferson and Madison. We mean to re- 
member that you are as good as we — that there is no 
difference between us — other than the difference of cir- 
cumstances. We mean to recognize and bear in mind 
always that you have as good hearts in your bosoms as 



IN Cincinnati! 337 

other people, or as good as we claim to have, and treat 
you accordingly.' 

"Fellow-citizens of Kentucky, Friends, Brethren: 
May I call you such? In my new position I see no oc- 
casion and feel no incHnation to retract a word of this. 
If it shall not be made good, be assured that the fault 
shall not be mine." 



TO THE Germans. 

Subsequently Mr. Lincoln was called upon by a pro- 
cession of two thousand Germans, who, in their formal ad- 
dress, indicated a desire for some utterance touching his 
public policy. In his responce Mr. Lincoln begged to be 
excused from entering upon such an exposition, and 
said: " I deem it due to myself and the whole country," 
said Mr. Lincoln, ''in the present- extraordinary con- 
dition of the public Opinion, that I should wait and see 
the last development of public opinion before I give my 
views, or express myself at the time of the inauguration. 
I hope at that time to be false to nothing you have been 
taught to expect of me. " 



SPEECH AT COLUMBUS, OHIO. 

(Delivered in the Hall of the House of Representatives, Feb. 13. r86r.> 

Lincoln's responsibility, and trust in god. 

Mr. President, and speaker, and gentlejcen; of the 
general assembly. — It is true, as has beem said by fhe 
President of the Senate, that very gTfea;t responsibility 



338 Lincoln's speeches complete. 

rests upon me in the position to which the votes of the 
American people have called me. I am deepiy sensible 
of that weighty responsibility. I cannot know, what you 
all know, that witHout a name — perhaps without a 
reason why I should have a name — there has fallen upon 
me a task such as did not rest upon the Father of his 
Country. And so feeling I cannot but turn and look for the 
support without which it will be impossible for me to 
peiform that great task. I turn, then, and look to the 
American people, and to that God who has never forsak- 
en them. 

POLICY OF THE NEW ADMINISTRATION. 

' 'Allusion has been made to the interest felt in relation 
to the policy of the new administration. In this I have 
received from some a degree of credit for having kept si- 
lence, from others some depreciation. I still think I 
was right. In the varying and repeatedly shifting scenes 
of the present, without a precedent which could enable 
me to judge from the past, it has seemed fitting that be- 
fore speaking upon the difBcalties of the country I should 
have gained a view of the whole field. To be sure, after 
all, I would be at liberty to modify and change the 
course of policy, as future events might make a change 
necessary. 

"I have not maintained silence from any want of real 
anxiety. It is a good thing that there is no more than 
anxiety, for there is nothing going wrong. It is a consol- 
ing circumstance that when we look out there is nothing 
that really hurts anybody. We entertain, different views 
upon political questions, but nobody is suf ering anything. 
This is a most consoling circumstance, and ifrpni it I 



At COLUMBUS. • 339 

judge that iall we want is time and patience^ and a reli- 
ance on that God who has never forsaken this people. " 
Fellow citizens, what I have said I have said altogether 
extemporaneously, and I will now come to a close. 



SPEECH AT STEUBENVILLE. 

(Delivered Feb. 14, i86i,) 
THE MAJORITY MUST RULE. 

Fellow^-CitizEns: — I fear the great confidence placed 
in my ability is unfounded. Indeed, I am sure it is. 
Encompasssed by vast difficulties as I am, nothing shall 
be wanting on my part, if sustained by the American 
people and God. I believe the devotion to the Constitu- 
tion is equally great on both sides of the river. It is only 
the different understanding of that instrument that causes 
difficulty. The only dispute on both sides is, "what are 
their rights.^" If the majority should not rule, who 
should be the judge.'^ Where is such a judge to be found.^ 
We should all be bound by the majority of the American 
people — if not, then the minority must control. Would 
that be right.? Would it be just or generous? Assuredly 
not. I reiterate, that the majority must rule. If I 
adopt a wrong policy, the opportunity for condemnation 
will occur in four years time. Then I can be turned 
out, and a better man with better views put in my place. 



SPEECH AT PITTSBURG. 

[Delivered Feb. 16, 1851.] 

Fellow-Citizens: — I most cordially thank His HonoB^ 



340 Lincoln's speeches complete. 

Mayor Wilson, and the citizens of Pittsburg generally, 
for their flattering reception. I .am the more grateful 
because I know that it is not given to me alone, but to 
the cause I represent, which clearly proves to me their 
good will, and that sincere feeling is at the bottom of it. 

THE DISTRACTED CONDITION OF THE COUNTRY. 

And here I may remark, that in every short address I 
have made to the people, in every crowd through which 
I have passed of late, some allusion has been made 
to the present distracted condition of the country. It 
is natural to expect that I should say something on 
this subject; but to touch upon it at all would involve an 
elaborate discussion of a great many questions and cir- 
cumstances, requiring more time than I can at present 
command, and would, perhaps, unnecessarily commit 
me upon matters which have not yet fully developed 
themselves. The condition of the country is an extraor- 
dinary one, and fills the mind of every patriot with 
anxiety. It is my intention to give this subject all the 
consideration I possibly can before especially deciding in 
regard to it, so that when I do speak it may be as nearly 
right as possible. When I do speak, I hope I may say 
nothing in opposition to the spirit of the Constitution, 
contrary to the integrity of the Union, or which will 
prove inimical to the liberties, or to the peace of the 
whole country. And, furthermore, when the time arrives 
for me to speak on this great subject, I hope I may 'say 
say nothing to disappoint the people generaly throughout 
the country, especially if the expectation has been based 
upon anyfhing which I may have heretofore said. 



AT PITTSBURG. 341 

Notwithstanding the troubles across the river, there is 
really no crisis springing from anything in the Govern- 
ment itself. In plain words, there is really no crisis ex- 
cept an artificial one. What is there now to warrant 
the condition of affairs presented by our friends ''over the 
river.?" Take even their own view of the questions in- 
volved, and there is nothing to justify the course which 
they are pursuing. I repeat it, then, there is no crisis, 
except such a one as may be gotten up at any time by 
turbulent men, aided by designing politicians. My ad- 
vice, then, under such circumstances, is to keep cool. 
If the great American people will only keep there temper 
on both sides of the line, the trouble will come to an end, 
and the question which now distracts the country will 
be settled just as surely as all other difficulties of like 
character which have originated in this Government have 
been adjusted. Let the people on both sides keep their 
self-possession, and just as other clouds have cleared 
away in due time, so will this, and this great nation 
shall continue to prosper as heretofore. But, fellow 
citizens, I have spoken longer on this subject tnan I in- 
tended to at the outset. 

THE TARIFF. 

It is often said that the Tariff is the specialty of Penn- 
sylvania. Assuming that direct taxation is not to be 
adopted, the Tariff question must be as durable as the 
Government itself. It is a question of national house- 
keeping. - It is the Government what replenishes the 
meal-tub is to the family. Every varying circumstance 
will require frequent modifications as to the amount 
needed, and the sources of supply. So far their is little 



342 Lincoln's speeches complete. 

difference among the people. It is only whether, and 
how far, the duties on imports shall be adjusted to favor 
home production. In the home market that controversy 
begins. One party insists that too much protection op- 
presses one class for the advantage of another, while the 
other argues that with all its incidents, in the long run 
all classes are benefited. In the Chicago Platform there 
is a plank upon this subject, which should be a general 
law to the incoming Administration. We should do 
neither more nor less than we gave the people reason to 
believe we would when they gave us their votes. That 
plank is as I now read: 

' 'That while providing revenue for the support of the 
General Government, by duties upon imports as will 
encourage the development of the industrial interest of 
the whole country; and we commend that policy of na- 
tional exchanges which secures to workingmen liberal 
wages, to agriculture remunerative prices, to mechanics 
and manufacturers, adequate reward for their skill, labor, 
and to the nation commercial prosperity and independ- 
ence. 

As with all general propositions, doubtless there will 
be shades of difference in construing this. I have by no 
means a thoroughly matured judgement upon this subject, 
especially as to details; some general ideas are about all. 
I have long thought to produce any necessary article at 
home which can be made as good quality and with as 
little labor at home as abroad, would be better policy, at 
least by the difference of carrying from abroad. In such 
a case, the carrying is demonstrably a dead loss of labor. 
For instance, labor being the true standard of value, is 



AT PITTSBURG. 343 

it not plain that if equal labor gets a bar of railroad out 
of a mine in England, and another out of a mine in Penn- 
sylvania, each can be laid down in a track at home 
cheaper than they could exchange countries, at least by 
the cost of carriage? If there be a present cause why 
one can be both made and carried cheaper in money 
price than the other can be made without carrying, that 
cause is an unnatural and injurious one, and ought natur- 
ally, if not rapidly, to be removed. 

The condition of the Treasury would seem to render 
an early revision of the Tariff indispensable. The Mor- 
rill Tariff Bill, now pending before Congress, may or 
may not become a law. I am not posted as to its parti- 
cular provisions, but if they are generally satisfactory, 
and the bill shall now pass, there will be an end of the 
matter for the present. If, however, it shall not pass, 
I suppose the whole subject will be one of the most press- 
ing and important for the next Congress. By the Con- 
stitution, the Executive may recommend measures which 
he may think proper and he may veto those he thinks 
improper, and it is supposed that he may add to these 
certain indirect influences to affect the action of Con- 
gress. My political education strongly inclines me 
against a very free use of any of these means by the 
Executive to control the legislation of the country. As a 
rule, I think it better that Congress should originate as 
well as perfect its measures without external bias. 

I, therefore, would rather recommend to every gentle- 
men who knows he is to be a member of the next Con- 
gress to take an enlarged view, and inform himself 
thoroughly, so as to contribute his part to such an ad- 



344 LINCOLN S SPEECHES COMPLETE, 

justment of the tariff as shall produce a sufficient revenue 
and in its other bearings, so far as possible, be just and 
equal to all sections of the country, and all classes of 
people. 



Mr. Lincoln left Pittsburg immediately after the de- 
livery of this speech, being accompanied to the depot 
by a long procession of the people of the city. The 
train reached Cleveland at half-past four in the after- 
noon, and the President-elect w^as received by a long 
procession, w^hich marched, amidst the roar of artil- 
lery, through the principal streets to the Weddell 
House, w^here Mr. Lincoln, in reply to an address of 
w^elcome from the Mayor, made the following remarks: — 
SPEECH AT CLEVELAND OHIO., 

(Delivered Feb. 15, 1861) 

the crisis. 
Mr. Chairman and Fellow-Citizens of Cleveland: 
We^have been marching about two miles through snow 
rain, and deep mud. The large numbers that have 
turned out under these circumstances testify that you 
are in earnest about something or other. But do I think 
so meanly of you as to suppose that that earnestness is 
about me personally.? I would be doing you injustice to 
suppose it was. You have assembled to testify your 
respects to the Union, and the Constitution and the 
laws. And here let me state that it is with you, the 
people, to advance the great cause of the Union and the 
Constitution, and not with any one man. It rests with 
you alone. This fact is strongly impressed on my mind 



IN CLEVELAND, 345 

at present. . In a community like this, whose appearance, 
testifies to their intelligence, I am convinced that the 
cause of liberty and the Union can never be in danger. 
Frequent allusion is made to the excitement at present 
existing in our national politics, and it is as well that I 
should also allude to it here. I think that there ' is no 
occasion for any excitement. The crisis, as it is called, 
is altogether an artificial crisis. In all parts of the 
nation there are differences of opinion on politics. There 
are differences of opinion even here. You did not all 
vote for the person who now addresses you. 

What is happening now will not hurt those who are 
further away from here. Have they not all their rights 
now as they ever have had? Do not they have their 
fugitive slaves returned now as ever? Have they not the 
same Constitution that they have lived under for seventy 
odd years? Have they not a position as citizens of this 
common country, and have we any power to change that 
position? [Cries of ''No"] What, then, is the matter 
with them? Why all this excitement? Why all these 
complaints? As I said before, this crisis is all artificial! 
It has no foundation in fact. It was not "argued up," 
as the saying is, and cannot therefore be argued down. 
Let it alone, and it will go down of itself. [Laughter] 
You must be content with but a few words from me. I 
am very much fatigued, and have spoken so much that 
I am already hoarse. I thank you for the cordial and 
magnificent reception you have given me. 

I understand that this reception is intended not only 
by my own party supporters, but by men of all parties. 
This is as it should be. If Judge Douglas had been 



346 Lincoln's speeches complete. 

elected, and had been here, on his way to Washington, 
as I am to-night, the RepubHcans should have joined his 
supporters in welcoming him, just as his friends have 
joined with mine to-night. If all do not join now to 
save the good old ship of the Union on this voyage, 
nobody will have a chance to pilot her on another voy- 
age. I, conclude by thanking all present for the de- 
votion they have shown to the cause of the Union. 



On the morning of the i6th the Presidential party left 
Cleveland for Buffalo. At Erie, where they dined, loud 
calls were made upon Mr. Lincoln for a speech, in re- 
sponce to which he made a few remarks, excusing him- 
self for not expressing his opinion on the exciting ques- 
tions of the day. He trusted that when the time for 
speaking should come, he should find it necessary to say 
nothing not in accordance with the Constitution, as well 
as with the interests of the people of the whole country. 
At North-east Station he took occasion to state that 
during the campaign he had received a letter from a 
young girl of the place, in which he was kindly admon- 
ished to do certain things, among others to let his 
whiskers grow; and, as he had acted upon that piece of 
advice, he would now be glad to welcome his fair cor- 
respondent, if she was among the crowd. In response 
to the call a lassie made her way through the crowd, was 
helped on the platform, and was kissed by the President, 



SPEECH IN BUFFALO, N. Y. 

(Delivered Feb. i6, 1861) 

Arriving at Buffalo, Mr. Lincoln had the utmost diffi- 
culty to make his way through the dense crowd which 
had assembled in anticipation of his arrival. On reach- 
ing the American Hotel, he was welcomed in a brief 
speech by Acting-Mayor Bemis, to which he responded 
as follows: — 

Mr. Mayor and Fellow-Citizens of Buffalo and 
THE State of Nev^ York: — I am here to thank you 
briefly for this grand reception given to me, not person- 
ally, but as the representative of our great and beloved 
country. [Cheers.] Your worthy Mayor has been 
pleased to mention, in his address to me, the fortunate 
and agreeable journey which I have had from home, only 
it is a rather circuitous route to the Federal Capital. 
I am very happy that he was enabled in truth to con- 
gratulate myself and company on that fact. It is true 
we have had nothing thus far to mar the pleasure of the 
trip. 

We have not been met alone by those who assisted 
in giving the election to me; I say not alone by them, 
but by the whole population of the country through 
which we have passed. This is as it should be. Had 
the election fallen to any other of the distinguished can- 
didates instead of myself, under the peculiar circum- 
stances, to say the least, it would have been proper for 
all citizens to have greeted him as you now greet me. 
It is an evidence of the devotion of the whole people to 
the Constitution, the Union, and the perpetuity of the 

[347] 



348 Lincoln's speeches complete. 

liberties of this country. [Cheers.] I am unwilHng on 
any occasion that I should be so meanly thought of as to 
have it supposed for a moment that these demonstrations 
are tendered to me personally. They are tendered to 
the country, to the institutions of the country, and to 
the perpetuity of the liberties of the country, for which 
these institutions were made and created. 

I TRUST IN GOD. 

Your worthy Mayor has thought fit to express the hope 
that I may be able to relieve the country from the 
present, or, I should say, the threatened difficulties. I 
am sure I bring a heart true to the work. (Tremendous 
applause.) For the ability to preform it, I must trust 
in the Supreme Being who has never forsaken this favor- 
ed land, through the instrumentality of this great and in- 
telligent people. Without that assistance I shall surely 
fail; with it, I cannot fail. When we speak of threaten- 
ed difficulties to the country, it is natural that it should 
be expected that something should be said by myself, 
with regard to particular measures. 

AWAITING developments. 

Upon more mature reflection, however — and others 
will agree with me — that, when it is considered that 
these difficulties are without precedent, and never have 
been acted upon by any individual situated as I am, it is 
most proper I should wait and see the developments, 
and get all the light possible, so that when I do speak 
authoritatively, I may be as near right as possible. 
(Cheers.) When I shall speak authoritatively, I hope 
to say nothing inconsistent with the Constitution, the. 



AT BUFFALO. 349 

Union, the rights of all the States, of each State, and of 
each section of the country, and not to disappoint the 
reasonable expectations of those who have confided to 
me their votes. In this connection allow me to say 
that you, as a portion of the great American people, need 
only maintain your composure, stand up to your sober 
convictions of right, to your obligations to the Constitu- 
tion, and act in accordance with those sober conyictions, 
and' the clouds which now arise in the horizon will be 
dispelled, and we shall have a bright and glorious future; 
and when this generation has passed away, tens of thou- 
sands will inhabit this country where only thousands m^ 

habit it now. 

I do not propose to address you at length; I have no 
voice for it. Allow me again to thank you for this mag- 
nificent reception, and bid you farewell. 



SPEECH AT ROCHESTER, N. Y. 

(Delivered Feb. i8 1861) 

l^,r Lincoln remained at Buffalo over Sunday, the 
1 7th, and on the morning of the i8th left for Albany. 
On re^^ching Rochester, he was introduced by the Mayor 
:to a cro^wd of several thousands, to whom he said:— 

Fellow-Citizens:— I confess myself, after having 
seen many large audiences since leaving home, over- 
whelmed with this vast number of faces at this hour of 
the morning, I am not vain enough tobehevethat youare 
here from any wish io see me as an individual, but be- 
cause I am for the ttim^ being the representative of the 



350 Lincoln's speeches complete. 

American people. I could not, if I would, address 
you at any length. I have not the strength, even 
if I had the time, for a speech at each of these interviews 
that are afforded me on my way to Washington. I ap- 
pear merely to see you, and to let you see me, and to 
bid you farewell. I hope it will be understood that it is 
from no disinclination to oblige anybody that I do not 
address you at greater length. 



At Syracuse, where preparations had been made to 
give him a formal reception, he made the following 
remarks in reply to an address of welcome from the 
Mayor: — 

SPEECH AT SYRACUSE N. Y. 

Ladies and Gentlemen: — I see you have erected a 
very fine handsome platform here for me, and I presume 
you expected me to speak from it. If I should go upon 
it, you would imagine that I was about to dehver you a 
much longer speech than I am. I wish you to under- 
stand that I mean no discourtesy to "you for thus declin- 
ing. I intend discourtesy to no one. But I wish 3^ou 
to understand that, though I am unwilling to go upon this 
platform, you are not at liberty to draw any inferences 
concerning any other platform with which my name has 
been or is connected. [Laughter and applause. ] I wish 
you long life and prosperity individually, and pray 
that with the perpetuity of those institutions under which 
we have all so long liv^ed and prospered, our happiness 
may be secured, our future made brilliant, and the glor- 
ious destiny of our country established forever. I bid 
you a kind farewell;! 



'AT ALBANY. 35 I 

IN UTICA, N. Y, 

At Utica, where an immense and most enthusiastic 
assemblage of people from the surrounding ^ountry had 
gathered to see him, Mr. Lincoln contented himself by 
saying. : — 

Ladies and Gentlemen: — I have no speech to make 
to you, and no time to speak in. I appear before you 
that I may see you, and that you may see me; and I am 
willing to admit, that so far as the ladies are concerned, 
I have the best of the bargain, though I wish it to be 
understood that I do not make the same acknowledg- 
ment concerning the men. [Laughter and applause.]. 



SPEECH IN ALBANY, N. Y. 

The train reached Albany at half-past two in the after- 
noon, where Mr. Lincoln was formally received by the 
Mayor in a complimentary address, to which he thus re- 
plied: — - 

Mr. Mayor: — I can hardly appropriate to myself the 
flattering terms in which you communicate the tender of 
this reception, as personal to myself. I most gratefully 
accept the hospitalities tendered to me, and will not de- 
tain you or the audience with any extended remarks at 
this time. I presume that in the two or three courses 
through which I shall have to go, I shall have to repeat 
somewhat, and I will therefore only repeat to you my 
thanks for this kind reception. 



35- Lincoln's speeches complete. 

A procession was then formed, which escorted Mr. 
Lincoln to the steps of the Capital, where he was wel- 
comed by the Governor, in presence of an immense 
mass of the people, which he addressed as follows: — 

Mr. Governor: — I was pleased to receive an invita- 
tion to visit the capital of the great Empire State of the 
nation, on my way to the Federal Capital, and I now 
thank you, Mr. Governor, and the people of this capital, 
and the people of the State of New York: for this most 
hearty and magnificent welcome. If I am not at fault, 
the great Empire State at this time contains a greater 
population than did the United States of America at the 
time she achieved her national independence. I am 
proud to be invited to pass through your capital and 
meet them, as I now have the honor to do. 

I am notified by your Governor that this reception is 
given without distinction of party, I accept it the 
more gladly because it is so. Almost all men in this 
country, and in any country where freedom of thought 
is tolerated, attach themselves to political parties. It is 
but ordinary charity to attribute this to the fact that in 
so attaching himself to the party which his judgement 
prefers, the citizens believes he thereby promotes the 
best interests of the whole country; and when an elec- 
tion is passed, it is altogether befitting a free people 
that, until the next election, they should be as one 
people. 

The reception you have extended to me to-day is not 
given to me personally. It should not be so, but as the 
representative for the time being of the majority of the 
nation. If the election had resulted in the selection of 



AT ALBANY. 353 

either of the other candidates, the same cordiaHty should 
have been extended to him as is extended to me to day, 
in testimony of the devotion of the whole people to the 
ConstitLtion and the whole Union, and of their desire to 
perpetuate our institutions, and to hand them down 
in their perfection to succeeding generations. 

I have neither the voice nor the strength to address 
you at any greater length. I beg you will accept my 
most grateful thanks for this devotion — not to me, but 
to this great and glorious free country. 



Mr. Lincoln was then escorted to the Hall of Assemb- 
ly, and was formally received on behalf of the members 
of the legislature, to whom he made the following ad- 
dress: — 

Mr. President and Gentlemen on the Legislature 
OF THE State of New York: — It is with feeling of great 
diffidence, and, I may say, with feelings of awe, perhaps 
greater than I have recently experienced, that I meet 
you here in this place. The history of this great State, 
the renown of those great men who have stood here, and 
spoke here, and all been heard here, all crowd around 
my fancy, and incline me to shrink from any attempt to 
address you. Yet I have some confidence given me by 
the generous manner in which you have invited me, and 
by the still more generous manner in which you have 
received me, to speak further. You have invited and 
received me without distinction of party. I cannot for 
a moment suppose that this has been done in any con- 
siderable degree with reference to my personal services, 



354 LINCOLN S SPEECHES COMPLETE. 

but that it is done in so far as I am regarded at this 
time as the representive of the majesty of this great 
nation. I doubt not this is the truth, and the whole 
truth, of the case, and this is as it should be. It is 
much more gratifiying to me that this reception has been 
given to me as the representative of a free people, than 
it could possibly be if tendered as an evidence of devo- 
tion to me, or to any one man personally. 

And now I think it were more fitting that I should 
close these hasty remarks. It is true that, while I hold 
myself, without mock modesty, the humblest of all in- 
dividuals that have ever been elected to the Presidency, 
I have a more dificult task to perform than any one of 
them. You have generously tendered me the united 
support of the great Empire State. For this, in behalf 
of the nation — in behalf of the present and future of the 
nation — in behalf of civil and religious liberty for all time 
to come, most greatfully do I thank you. I do not pro- 
pose to enter into an explanation of any particular line 
of policy, as to our present difficulties, to be adopt- 
ed by the incoming Administration. 

I deem it just to you, to myself, and to all, that I 
should see every thing, that I should hear every thing, 
that I should have every light that can be brought with-' 
in my reach, in order that, when I do so speak, I shall 
have enjoyed every opportunity to take correct and true 
grounds; and for this reason I don't propose to speak, at 
this time, of the policy of the Government. But when 
the time comes I shall speak, as well as I am able, for 
the good of the present and future of this country — for 
the good both of the North and the South of this coun- 



AT TROY. 355 

try — for the good of the one and the other, and of all 
sections of the country. [Rounds of applause.] In the 
mean time, if we have patience, if we restrain ourselves, 
if we allow ourselves not to run off in a passion, I still 
have confidence that the Almighty, Maker of the Uni- 
verse, will, through the instrumentality of this great and 
intelligent people, bring us through this, as he has 
through all the other difficulties of our country. Rely- 
ing on this, I again thank you for this generous recep- 
tion. [Applause and Cheers.] 



SPEECH AT TROY, N. Y. 

On the morning of the 19th of Febuary, Mr. Lincoln 
v/ent to Troy, and, in reply to the welcome of the Mayor, 
said: — 

Mr. Mayor and Citizens of Troy: — I thank you 
very kindly for this great reception. Since I left my 
home it has not been my fortune to meet an assemblage 
more numerous and more orderly than this. I am the more 
gratified at this mark of your regard, since you assure me 
it is tendered, not to the individual, but to the high 
office you have called me to fill. I have neither strength 
nor time to make any extended remarks, and I can only re- 
peat to you my sincere thanks for the kind reception you 
have thought proper to extend to me. 



SPEECH AT HUDSON, N. Y. 

On the route to New York, by the Hudson River Rail- 
road, very large crowds of people had assembled at the 



356 Lincoln's speeches complete. 

various stations to welcome him. At Hudson he spoke 
as follows: — 

Fellow-Citizens: — I see you have provided a plat- 
form, but I shall have to decline standing on it. 
[Laughter and applause.] The superintendent tells me 
I have not time during our brief stay to leave the train. 
1 had to decline standing on some very handsome plat- 
forms prepared for me yesterday. But I say to you, as 
I said to them, you must not on this account draw the 
inference that I have any intention to desert any plat- 
form I have a legitimate right to stand on. I do not ap- 
pear before you for the purpose of making a speech. I 
come only to see you, and to give you the opportunity 
to see me; and I say to you, as I have before said to 
crowds where there are so many handsome ladies as 
there are here, I think I have decidedly the best of the 
bargain. I have only, therefore to thank you most 
cordially for this kind reception, and bid you all farewell. 



SPEECH AT POUGHKEEPSIE, N. Y. 

At Poughkeepsie, where great preparations had been 
made for his reception, he responded thus to an address 
from the Mayor: — 

Fellow- Citizens: — It is altogether impossible I 
should make myself heard by any considerable portion 
of this vast assemblage; but, although I appear before 
you mainly for the purpose of seeing you, and to let you 
see, rather than hear me, I cannot refrain from saying 
that I am highly gratified — as much here, indeed, under 
the circumstances, as I have been anywhere on my route 



AT PEEKSKILL. 357 

— to witness this noble demonstration — made, not in 
honor of an individual, but of the man who at this time 
humbly, but earnestly, represents the majesty of the 
nation. This reception, like all others that have been 
tendered to me, doubtless emanates from all the politi- 
cal parties, and not from one alone. As such I accept it 
the more gratefully, since it indicates an earnest desire 
on the part of the whole people, without regard to poli- 
tical difference, to save — not the country, because the 
country will save itself — but to save the institutions of 
the country — those institutions under which, in the last 
three-quarters of a century, we have grown to be a great, 
an intelligent, and a happy people — the greatest, the 
most intelligent, and the happiest people in the world. 



AT PEEKSKILL, N. Y. 

At Peekskill, in reply to a brief address from Judge Nel- 
son, Mr. Lincoln said: — 

Ladies and Gentlemen: — I have but a moment to 
stand before you, to listen to and return your kind greet- 
ing. I thank you for this reception, and for the pleasant 
manner in which it is tendered to me, by our mutual 
friend. I will say in a single sentence, in regard to the 
difficulties that lie before me and our beloved country, 
that if I can only be as generously and unanimously sus- 
tained as the demonstrations I have witnessed indicate 
I shall be, I shall not fail, but without your sustaining 
hands I am sure that neither I, nor any other man, can 
hope to surmount these difficulties. I trust that in the 
course I shall pursue I shall be sustained, not only by the 



358 Lincoln's speeches complete. 

party that elected me, but by the patriotic people of the 
whole country. 

SPEECHES IN NEW YORK CITY. 

The President-elect reached New York at three o'clock 
Feb. 19, and was received by an immense demonstration 
of popular enthusiasm. Places of business were general- 
ly closed, and the streets were filled wifh people, eager 
to catch a glimpse of his person. On reaching the Astor 
House, he was compelled by the importunity of the 
assembled crowd to appear on the balcony, from which 
he said: — 

Fellow-Citizens: — I have stepped before you merely 
in compliance with what appears to be your wish, and 
not with the purpose of making a speech. I do not pro- 
pose making a speech this afternoon. I could not be 
heard by any but a small fraction of you, at best; but, 
what is still worse than that, I have nothing just now to 
say that is worthy of your hearing. [Applause.] I beg 
you to believe that I do not now refuse to address you 
from any disposition to disoblige you, but to the con- 
trary. But, at the same time^ I beg of you to excuse 
me for the present. 

In the evening, Mr. Lincoln received a large deputa- 
tion at the Astor House from the various Republican 
associations which had taken an active part in the elec- 
tion canvass, and in reply to a brief welcome from Mr. 
E. D. Smith, on their behalf, he ifius addressed them: — 

Mr. Chairman and Gentlemen: — I am rather an old 
man to avail myself of such an excuse as I am now about 
to do. Yet the truth is so distinct, and presses itself so 



IN NEW YORK. 359 

distinctly upon me, that I cannot well avoid it — and that 
is, that I did not understand when I was brought into 
this room that I was brought here to make a speech. It 
was not intimated to me that I was brought into the 
room where Daniel Webster and Henry Clay had made 
speeches, and where, in my position, I might be expected 
to do something like those men, or do something worthy 
of myself or my audience. I, therefore, will beg you to 
make very great allowance for the circumstances in which 
I have been by surprise brought before you. Now, I 
have been in the habit of thinking and speaking some- 
times upon political questions that have for some years 
past agitated the country; and,*if 1 were supposed to do 
so, and we could take up some of the issues, as the law- 
yers call them, and I were called upon to make as argu- 
ment, about it to the best of my ability, I could do so 
without much preparation. But that is not what you 
desire to be done here to-night. 

I have been occupying a position since the Presidential 
election of silence, of avoiding public speaking, of avoid- 
ing public writing. I have been doing so, because I 
thought, upon full consideration, that was the proper 
course for me to take. [Great applause.] I am brought 
before you now, and required to make a speech, when 
you all approve more than any thing else of the fact that 
I have been keeping silence. [Great laughter, cries of 
"Good," and applause.] And now it seems to me that 
the response you give to that remark ought to justify me 
in closing just here. [Great Laughter.] I have not kept 
silence since the Presidential election from any party 
wantonness, or from any indifference to the anxiety that 



360 Lincoln's speeches complete. 

pervades the minds of men about the aspect of the polit- 
ical affairs of this country. I have kept silence for the 
reason that I supposed it was peculiarly proper that I 
should do so until the time came when, according to the 
custom of the country, I could speak officially. 

A voice — The custom of the country.? 

I heard some gentleman say, ' 'According to the custom 
of the country." I alluded to the custom of the Presi- 
dent-elect, at the time of taking the oath of office. 
That is what I meant by "the custom of the country.'' 
I do suppose that, while the political drama being enact- 
ed in this country, at this time, is rapidly shifting its 
scenes — forbidding an anticipation with any degree of 
certainty, to-day, what we shall see to-morrow — it was 
peculiarly fitting that I should see it all, up to the last 
minute, before I should take ground that I might be dis- 
posed (by the shifting of the scenes afterwards) also to 
shift. [Applause.] 

I have said, several times, upon this journey, and I now 
repeat it to you; that when the time does come, I shall 
then take the ground that I think is right — [applause] — 
the ground that I think is right — [applause, and cries of 
"Good, good" — right for the North, for the South, for 
the East, for the West, for the whole country. [Cries of 
"Good," "Hurrah for Lincoln," and applause.] And in 
doing so, I hope to feel no necessity pressing upon me to 
say anything in conflict with the Constitution; in conflict 
with the continued union of these States — [applause]— 
in conflict with the perpetuation of the liberties of this 
people — [applause] — or anything in conflict with any 
thing whatever that I have ever given you reason to ex- 



IN NEW YORK. 36 1 

pect from me. (Applause.) And now my friends have 
I said enough.? (Loud cries of "No, no," and three 
cheers for Lincoln. ) Now, my friends, there appears to 
be a difference of opinion between you and me, and I 
really feel called upon to decide the question m3'self. 
[Applause, during which Mr. Lincoln descended from the 
table.) 

On the morning of the 20th Mr. Lincoln proceeded to 
the City Hall, where it had been arranged that he should 
have an official reception. He was there addressed by 
Mayor Wood in the following terms: — 

Mr. Lincoln: — As Mayor, of New York, it becomes 
my duty to extend to you an official welcome in behalf of 
the Corporation. In doing so, permit me to say, that 
this city has never offered hospitality to a man clothed 
with more exalted powers, or resting under graver respon- 
sibilities, than those which circumstances have devolved 
upon you. Coming into office with a dismembered Gov- 
ernment to reconstruct, and a disconnected and hostile 
people to reconcile, it will require a high patriotism, and 
an elevated comprehension of the whole country und its 
varied interests, opinions, and prejudices, to so conduct 
public affairs as to bring it back again to its former har- 
monious, consolidated, and prosperous condition. If I 
refer to this topic, sir, it is because New York is deeply 
interested. The present political divisions have sorely 
afflicted her people. All her material interests are para- 
lyzed. Her commercial greatness is endangered. She 
is the child of the American Union, ^he has grown up 
under its maternal care, and been fostered by its paternal 
bounty, and we fear that if the Union dies, the present 



362 LINCOLN'S SPEECHES COMPLETE. 

supremacy of New York may perish with it. To you, 
therefore, chosen under the forms of the Constitution as 
the head of the confederacy, we look for a restoration of 
fraternal relations between the States — only to be ac- 
complished by peaceful and conciliatory means, aided by 
the wisdom of Almighty God. 

To this address Mr. Lincoln made the following re- 
ply:— 

Mr. Mayor: — II is with feelings of deep gratitude that 
I make my acknowledgements for the reception that has 
been given me in the great commercial city of New York. 
I cannot but remember that it is done by the people, who 
not by a large majority, agree with me in political senti- 
ment. It is the more grateful to me, because in this I see 
that for the great ptinciples of our government the people 
are pretty nearly or quite unanimous. In regard to the 
difficulties that confront us at this time, and of which you 
have seen lit to speak so becomingly and so justly, I can 
only say that I agree with the sentiments expressed. In 
my devotion to the Union I hope I am behind no man in 
the nation; As to my wisdom in coducting affairs so as 
to tend to the perservation of the Union, I fear too great 
confidence may have been placed in me. I am sure I 
bring a heart devoted to the work. 

There is nothing that could ever bring me to consent — 
willingly to consent — to the destruction- of this Union (in 
which not only the great City of New York, but the whole 
country, has acquired its greatness) unless it be that thing 
for which the Union itself was made. I understand that 
the ship is made for the carrying and preservation of the 
cargo; and so long as the ship is safe with the cargo,, it 



IN JERSEY CITY. 363 

shall not be abandoned. This Union shall never be 
abandoned, unless the possibility of its existence shall 
cease to exist, without the necessity of throwing pas- 
sengers and cargo overboard. So long, then, as it is 
possible that the prosperity and liberties of this people 
can be preserved within this Union, it shall be my pur- 
pose at all times to preserve it. And now, Mr. Mayor, 
renewing my thanks for this cordial reception, allow me 
to come to a close. [Applause.] 



IN JERSEY CITY. 

On the morning of Thursday, the 2 1st, Mr. Lincoln 
left New York for Philadelphia, and on reaching Jersey 
City was met and welcomed, on behalf of the State, by 
the Hon. W. L. Dayton, to whose remarks he made this 
reply: — , 

Mr. Dayton and Gentlemen of the State of New 
Jersey: — I shall only thank you briefly for this very kind 
reception given me, not personally, but as the temporary 
representative of the majesty of the nation. [Applause.] 
To the kindness of your hearts, and the hearts of your 
brethren in your State, I should be very proud to respond, 
but I shall not have strength to address you or other 
assemblages at length, even if I had the time to do so. 
I appear before you, therefore, for little else than to 
greet you, and to briefly say farewell. You have done 
me the very high honor to present your reception cour- 
tesies to me through your great man — a man with whom 
it is an honor to be associated anywhere, and in owning 
whom no State can be poor. [Applause.] He has said 



364 Lincoln's speeches complete. 

enough, and by the saying of it suggested enough, to re- 
quire a response of an hour well considered. (Applause.) 
I could not in an hour make a worthy response to it. I 
therefore, ladies and gentlemen of New Jersey, content 
myself with saying, most heartily do I indorse all the 
sentiments he has expressed. [Applause.] Allow me, 
most gratefully, to bid you farwell. [Applause.] 



IN NEWARK. 

At Newark he was welcomed by the Mayor, to whom 
he said: — 

Mr. Mayor: — I thank you for this reception at the city 
of Newark. With regard to the great work of which you 
speak, I will say that I bring to it a heart filled with love 
for my country, and an honest desire to do what is right. 
I am sure, however, that I have not the ability to do 
anything unaided of God, and that without his support, 
and that of this free, happy, prosperous, and intelligent 
people, no man can succeed in doing that the importance 
of which we all comprehend. Again thanking you for 
the reception you have given me, I will now bid you far- 
well, and proceed upon my journey 



AT TRENTON. 

At Trenton he was received by a committee of the 
legislature, and escorted to both branches, which were 
in session. The President of the Senate welcomed him 
in a brief address, to which the President-elect made the 
following reply: — 

Mr. President and Gentlemen of the Senate of 



AT TRENTON. 3^5 

THE State of New Jersey:— I am very grateful to you 
for the honorable reception of which I have been the 
object. I cannot but remember the place that New 
Jersey holds in our early history. In the early Revolu- 
tionary struggle few of the States among the Old Thirteen 
had more of the battle-fields of the country within their 
limits than old New Jersey. 

May I be pardoned if, upon this occasion, I mention 
that away back in my childhood, the earliest days of my 
being able to read, I got hold of a small book, such a one 
as few of the younger members have ever seen, ' 'Weem's 
Life of Washington." I remember all the accounts there 
given of the battle-fields and struggles for the liberties 
of the country, and none fixed themselves upon my 
imagination so deeply as the struggle here at Trenton, 
New Jersey. The crossing of the river; the contest with 
the Hessians; the great hardships endured at that time, 
all fixed themselves oa my memory more than any single 
Revolutionary event; and you all know, for you have all 
been boys, how these early impressions last longer than- 
any others. 

I recollect thinking then, boy even though I was, that 
there must have been something more than common that 
these men struggled for. I am exceedingly anxious that 
that thing which they struggled for; that something even 
more than National Independence; that something that 
held out a great promise to all the people of the world to 
all time to come— I am exceedingly anxious that this 
Union, the Constitution, and the liberties of the people 
shall be perpetuated in accordance with the original idea 
for which that struggle was made, and I shall be most 



366 Lincoln's speeches complete. 

happy indeed if I shall be an humble instrument in the 
hands of the Almighty, and of this, his most chosen peo 
pie, as the chosen instrument — also in the hands of the 
Almighty — for perpetuating the object of that great 
struggle. 

You give me this reception, as I understand, without 
distinction of party. I learn that this body is composed 
of a majority of gentlemen who, in the exercise of their 
best judgement in the choice of a Chief Magistrate, did 
not think I was the man. I understand, nevertheless, 
that they came forward here to greet me as the constitu- 
tional President of the United States — as citizens of the 
United States to meet the man who, for the time being, 
is the representative man of the nation — united by a 
purpose to perpetuate the Union and liberties of the peo- 
ple. As such, I accept this reception more gratefully 
than I could do did I believe it was tendered to me as an 
individual. 

Mr. Lincoln then passed to the Assembly Chamber^ 
where, in reply to the Speaker, he spoke as follows: — 

Mr. Speaker and Gentlemen: — I have just enjoyed 
the honor of a reception by the other branch of this legis- 
lature, and I return to you and them my thanks for the 
reception which the people of New Jersey have given 
through their chosen representatives to me as the repre- 
sentative, for the time being, of the majesty of the peo- 
ple of the United States. I appropriate to myself very 
little of the demonstrations of respect with which I have 
been greeted. I think little should be given to any man, 
but that it should be a manifestation of adherence to the 
Union and the Constitution. I understand myself to be 



At TRENTON. 367 

received here by the representatives of the people of 
New Jersey, a majority of whom differ in opinion from 
those with whom I have acted. This manifestation is, 
therefore, to be regarded by me as expressing their devo- 
tion to the Union, the Constitution, and the Hberties of 
the people. 

You, Mr. Speaker, have well said that this is a time 
when the bravest and wisest look with doubt and awe 
upon the aspect presented by onr national affairs- Un- 
der these circumstances, you will readily see why I 
should not speak in detail of the course I shall deem it 
best to pursue. It is proper that I should avail myself of 
all the information and all the time at my command, in 
order that when the time arrives in which I must speak 
officially, I shall be able to take the ground which I deem 
the best and safest, and from which I may have no oc- 
casion to swerve. I shall endeavor to take the ground I 
deem most just to the North, the East, the West, the 
South, and the whole country. I take it, I hope, in good 
temper, certainly with no malice towards any section. I 
shall do all that may be in my power to promote a peace- 
ful settlement of all our difficulties. The man does not 
live who is more devoted to peace than I am. [Cheers.] 
None who would do more to preserve it, but it may be 
necessary to put the foot down firmly; [Here the au- 
dience broke out into cheers so loud and long, that for 
some moments it was impossible to hear Mr. Lincoln's" 
voice.] And if I do my duty and do right, you will sus- 
tain me, will you not.^ [Loud cheers, and cries of "Yes,' 
yes, we will"] Received, as I am, by the members of a 
legislature, the majority of whom do not agree with me 



368 Lincoln's speeches complete. 

in political sentiments, I trust that I may have their 
assistance in piloting the ship of State through this voy- 
age, surrounded by perils as it is; for if it should suffer 
wreck now, there will be no pilot ever needed for another 
voyage. Gentlemen, I have already spoken longer than 
I intended, and must beg leave to stop here. 

The procession then moved to the Trenton House 
where the President-elect made the following speech to 
the crowd outside: — 

Fellow-Citizens: — I have been invited by your rep- 
resentatives to the Legislature to visit this, the capital 
of your honored State, and in acknowledging their kind 
invitation, compelled to respond to the welcome of the 
presiding officers of each body, and I suppose they intend- 
ed I should speak to you through them, as they are the 
representatives of all of you; and if I was to speak again 
here, I should only have to repeat, in a great measure, 
much that I have said, which would be disgusting to my 
friends around me who have met here. I have no speech 
to make, but merely appear to see you and let you look 
at me; and as to the latter, I think I have greatly the 
best of the bargain. [Laughter.] My friends, allow me 
to bid you farwell. 



SPEECHES IN PHILADELPHIA. 

(Delivered at the Continental Hotel, Feb. 21, 1861.) 

The party arrived at Philadelphia at 4 o'clock, and the 
President-elect, proceeded immediately to the Continen- 
tal Hotel, was welcomed in a brief speech from Mayor 
Henry, to which he replied as follows: — 



in philadelphia. 369 

Mr. Mayor and Fellow- Citizens of Philadelphia: — 
I appear before you to make no lengtly speech, but to 
thank you for this reception. The reception you have 
given me to-night is not to me, the man, the individual, 
but to the man who temporarily represents, or should 
represent, the majesty of the nation. (Cheers) It is 
true, as your worthy Mayor has said, that there is anx- 
iety among the citizens of the United States at this time. 
I deem it a happy circumstance that this dissatisfied 
position of our fellow-citizens does not point us to any 
thing in which they are being injured, or about to be in- 
jured; for which reason, I have felt all the while justified 
in concluding that the crisis, the panic, the anxiety of the 
country at this time, is artificial. If there be those who 
differ with me upon this subject, they have not pointed 
out the substantial difficulty that exists. I do not mean 
to say that an artificial panic may not do considerable 
harm; that it has done such I do not deny. The hope 
that has been expressed by your Mayor, that I may be 
able to restore peace, harmony, and prosperity to the 
county, is most worthy of him; and happy, indeed, will 
I be if I shall be able to verify and fulfill that hope. 
(Tremendous cheering. ) I promise you, in all sincerity, 
that I bring to the work a sincere heart. Whether I will 
bring a head equal to that heart will be for future times 
to determine. It were useless for me to speak of details 
of plans now; I shall speak officially next Monday week, 
if ever. If I should not speak then, it were useless of me 
to do so now. If I do speak then, it is useless for me to 
do so now. When I do speak, I shall take such ground 
as I deem best calculated to restore peace, harmony, and 



370 Lincoln's speeches complete. 

prosperity to the country, and tend to the perpetuity of 
the nation and the hberty of these States, and these 
people. 

Your worthy Mayor has expressed the wish, in which I 
join with him, that it Were convenient for me to remain 
in your city long enough to consult your merchants and 
manufacturers; or as it were, to listen to those breath- 
ings rising within the concecrated walls wherein the Con- 
stitution of the United States, and, I will add, the Dec- 
laration of Independence, were originally framed and 
adopted (Enthusiastic applause.'*) I assure you and 
your Mayor that I had hoped on this occasion, and upon 
all occasions during my life, that I shall do nothing in- 
consistent with the teachings of the holy and most sacred 
walls. I never asked anything that does not breathe from 
those walls. All my political warfare has been in favor 
of the teachings that came forth from these sacred walls. 
May my right hand forget its cunning, and my tongue 
cleave to the roof of my mouth, if ever I prove false to 
those teachings. Fellow-citizens, I have addressed you 
longer than I expected to do, and now allow me to bid 
you good-night. 

On the 2 1 St, Mr. Ldiacoln visited the old Independence 
Hall, from which was originally issued the Declaration of 
Independence. He was received in a cordial speech by 
the Rev. Theodore Cuyler, D. D. to which he made the 
following response: — 

Dr. Cuyler: — lam filled with deep emotion at finding 
myself standing here in this place, where were collected to- 
gether the wisdom, the patriotism, the devotion to prin- 
ciple from which sprang the institutions under which we 



IN PHILADELPHIA. 37 1 

live. You have kindly suggested to me that in my hands 
is the task of restoring peace to the present distracted 
condition of the country. I can say in return, sir, that 
all the political sentiments I entertain have been drawn, 
so far as I have been able to draw them, from the senti- 
ments which originated in and were given to the world 
from this hall. I have never had a feeling, politically, 
that did not spring from the sentiments embodied in the 
Declaration of Independence. 

I have often pondered over the dangers which were in- 
curred by the men who assembled here, and framed and 
adopted that Declaration of Independence. 

I have pondered over the toils that were endured by 
the officers and soldiers of the army who achieved that 
independence. I have often inquired of myself what 
great principle or idea it was that kept that Confederacy 
so long together. It was not the mere matter of the sep- 
aration of the Colonies from the mother-land, but that 
sentiment in the Declaration of Independence which gave 
liberty, not alone to the people of this country, but, I 
hope, to the world, for all future time. (Great applause. ) 
It was that which gave promise that in due time the 
weight would be lifted from the shoulders of all men. 
This is the sentiment embodied in the Declaration of In- 
dependence. 

Now, my friends, can this country be saved upon t'nat 
basis.? If it can, I will consider myself one of the hap- 
piest men in the world if I can help to save it. If it cam 
not be saved upon that principle, it will be truly awfuL 
But if this country cannot be saved without giving up 
that principle, I W9.s about to say I wouH rather be 



37^ LINCOLN'S SPEECHES COMPLEtl t. 

assassinated on this spot than surrender it. (Applause.) 
Now, in my view* of the present aspect of affairs, there 
need be no bloodshed or war. There is nc > necessity for 
it. I am not in favor of such a course; :and I may say 
in advance that there will be no bloodshed I unless it be 
forced upon the Government, and then it will be com- 
pelled to act in self defence. [Applause.] 

My friends, this is wholly an unexpected speech, and 
I did not expect to be called upon to say ai word when I 
came here. I supposed it was merely to d o something 
towards raising the flag — I may, therefor* e, have said 
something indiscreet. (Cries of No, no; ) I have said 
nothing but what I am willing to live by^. and if it be 
the pleasure of the Almighty God, die by. 

One object of the visit to Independence Hall was, to 
have Mr. Lincoln assist in raising the national flag over 
the Hall. Arrangements had been made for the perform- 
ance of this ceremony, and Mr. Lincoln was escorted to 
the platform prepared for the purpose, and was invited, 
in a brief address, to raise the flag. He responded in a 
patriotic speech, announcing his cheerful compliance with 
the request. He alluded to the original flag of thirteen 
stars, saying that the number had increased as time rolled 
on, and we became a happy, powerful people, each star 
adding to its prosperity. The future is in the hands of 
the people. It was on such an occasion we could reason 
together, reaffirm our devotion to the country and the 
principles of the Declaration of Independence. Let us 
make up our minds, said he, that whenever we do put a 
new star upon our banner, it shall be a fixed one, never 



AT LANCASTER. 373 

to be dimmed by the horrors of war, but brightened 
by tl je contentment and prosperity of peace. Let us go. 
01^ to extend the area cf our usefulness, and add star upon 
si" .ar, until their light shall shine over five hundred mil- 
lions of free and happy peop'le. Then he performed his 
part in the ceremony, amidst a thundering discharge of 
artillery. 

In the afternoon he left for the West. On reaching 
Lancaster he was received with a salute, and replied to 
a.n address of welcome in the follow words: — 
SPEECH AT LANCASTER, PA. 
Ladies and Gentlemen of old Lancaster: — I appear 
hot to make a speech. I have not time to make a speech 
at length, and not strength to make them on every oc- 
casion; and worse than all, I have none to make. There 
is plenty of matter to speak about in these times, but it 
is well known that the more a man speaks the less he is 
understood — the more he says one thing, the more his 
adversaries contend he meant something else. I shall 
soon have occasion to speak officially, and then I will 
endeavor to put my thoughts just as plain as I can ex- 
press myself — true to the Constitution and Union of all 
the States, and to the perpetual liberty of all the people. 
Until I so speak, there is no need to enter upon details. 
In conclusion, I greet you most heartily, and bid you an 
affectionate farwell. 



On reaching Harrisburg on the 22nd, Mr. Lincoln was 
escorted to the legislature, and was welcomed by the pre- 
siding officers of the two houses, to whom he replied as 
follows:-^ 



SPFECH AT HARRISBURG, PA. 

(Delivered Feb. 22nd, 1861, in the Legislative Hall.) 

Fellow-Citizens: — I appear before you only for a 
very few, brief remarks, in response to what has been said 
to me. I thank you most sincerely for the reception, 
and the generous words in which support has been 
promised me upon this occasion, I thank your great 
Commonwealth for the overwhelming support it recently 
gave, not me personally, but the cause which I think 
a just one, in the late election. (Loud applause.) 

Allusion has been made to the fact — the interesting 
fact, perhaps, we should say — that 1 for the first time 
appear at the Capital of the great Commonwealth of 
Pennsylvania on the birthday of the Father of his Coun- 
try, in connection with that beloved anniversary con- 
nected with the history of this country. I have already 
gone through one interesting scene this morning in the 
ceremonies at Philadelphia. Under the high conduct of 
gentlemen there, I was for the first time allowed the 
privilege of standing in old Independence Hall (enthus- 
iastic cheering,) to have a few words addressed to me 
there, and opening up to me an opportunity of express- 
ing with much regret, that I had not more time to ex- 
press something of my own feelings, excited by the occa- 
sion, somewhat to harmonize and give shape to the feel- 
ings that had been really the feelings of my whole life. 

Besides this, our friends there had provided a magnif- 
icent flag of the country. They had arranged it so that 
I was given the honor of arising it to the head of its 
staff. (Applause. ) And when it went up, I was pleased 

(374) 



AT HARRISBURG. 37 S 

that it went into its place by the strength of my own 
feeble arm, when, accordfng to the arrangement, the cord 
was pulled, and it floated gloriously to the wind, without 
an accident, in the light, glowing sunshine of the morn- 
ing. I could not help hoping that there was, in the en- 
tire success of that beautiful ceremony, at least something 
of an omen of what is to come. [Loud applause.] How 
couid I help feeling then as I have often felt.^ In the 
whole of that proceeding I was a very humble instrument. 
I had not provided the flag; I had not made the arrange- 
ments, for elevating it to its place; I had applied but 
a very small portion of my feeble strength in raising it. 
In the whole transaction I was in the hands of the people, 
who had arranged it, and if I can have the same gener- 
ous co-operation of the people of the nation, I think the 
flag of our country may yet be kept flaunting gloriously. 
{Loud, enthusiastic, and continued cheers.) 

I recur for a moment but to repeat some words uttered 
at the hotel, in regard to what has been said about the 
military support which the General Government may ex- 
pect from the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania in a proper 
emergency. To guard against any possible mistake do I 
recur to this. It is not with any pleasure that I contem- 
plate the possibility that a necessity may arise in this 
country for the use of the military arm. (Applause.) 
While I am exceedingly gratified to see the manifestation 
upon your streets of your military force here, and exceed- 
ingly gratified at your promises here to use that force up- 
on a proper emergency— while I make these acknowledge- 
ments I desire to repeat, in order to preclude any pos- 
sible misconstruction, that I do most sincerely hope that 



376 Lincoln's speeches complete. 

we shall have no use for them. (Applause.) That it 
will never become their duty to shed blood, and most 
especially never to shed fraternal blood. I promise that, 
so far as I may have wisdom to direct, if so painful a re- 
sult shall in anywise be brought about, it shall be through 
no fault of mine. (Cheers.) 

Allusions has also been made by one of your honored 
speakers to some remarks recently made by myself at 
Pittsburg, in regard to what is supposed to be the especial 
interest of this great Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.' 
I now wish only to say, in regard to that matter, that 
the few remarks which I uttered on that occasion were 
rather carefully worded. I took pains that they should 
be so. I have seen no occasion since to add to them, or 
subtract from them. I leave them precisely as they 
stand (applause,) adding only now, that I am pleased to 
have an expression from you gentlemen of Pennsylvania, 
significant that they are satisfactory to you. And now, 
gentlemen of the General Assembly of the Common- 
wealth of Pennsylvania, allow me to return you again my 
most sincere thanks. 



After the delivery of this address, Mr. Lincoln devoted 
some hours to the reception of visitors, and at six 
o'clock retired to his room. The next morning the 
whole country was surprised to learn that he had arrived 
in Washington — twelve hours sooner than he had origin- 
ally intended. His sudden departure proved to have 
been a measure of precaution for which events subse- 
quently disclosed afforded a full justification. For some 
time previous to his departure from home, the rumor had 



AT WASHINGTON. 377 

been current that he would never reach the Capital alive. 
An attempt was made on the Toledo and Western Rail- 
road, on the nth of February, to throw from the track 
the train on which he was journeying, and just as he was 
leaving Cincinnati a hand grenade was found to have 
been secreted on board the cars. These and other cir- 
cumstances led to an organized and thorough investigation, 
under the direction of a police detective, carried on with 
great skill and perseverance at Baltimore, and which re- 
sulted in disclosing the fact that a small gang of assassins, 
under the leadership of an Italian who assumed the name 
of Orsini, had arranged to take his life during his passage 
through Baltimore. General Scott and Mr. Seward had 
both been apprised of the same fact through another 
source, and they had sent Mr. F. W. Seward as a special 
messenger to Philadelphia, to meet the President-elect 
there, previous to his departure from Harrisburg, and 
give him notice of these circumstances. Mr. Lincoln 
did not deviate from the programme he had marked out 
for himself, in consequence of these communications; ex- 
cept that, under the advice of friends, he deemed it 
prudent to anticipate by one train the time he was ex- 
pected to arrive in Washington. He reached there on 
the morning of Saturday, the 23d. 

LINCOLN'S SPEECH IN WASHINGTON. 

(Delivered, Wednesday, Feb, 27, 1861 at his Hotel.) 

On Wednesday, the 27th, the Mayor and Common 
Council of the city waited upon Mr. Lincoln, and ten- 
dered him a welcome. He replied to them as follows: — 

Mr. Mayor: — I thank you, and through you the muni- 



3/8 Lincoln's speeches complete. 

cipal authorities of this city who accompany you, for 
this welcome. And as it is the first time in my Hfe, 
since the present phase of politics has presented itself in 
this country, that I have said anything publicly within a 
region of country where the institution of slavery exists, 
I will take this occasion to say, that I think very much of 
the ill-feelings that has existed and still exists between 
the people in the sections from which I came and the 
people here, is dependent upon a misunderstanding of 
one another. I therefore avail myself of this opportunity 
to assure you, Mr. Mayor, and all the gentlemen present, 
that I have not now, and never have had, any other than 
a kindly feelings towards you as the people of my own 
section. I have not now, and never have had, any dis- 
position to treat you in any respect otherwise than as my 
own neighbors. I have not now any purpose to withhold 
from you any of the benefits of the Constitution, under 
any circumstances, that I would not feel myself constrain- 
ed to withhold from my own neighbors; and I hope, in a 
word, that when we shall become better acquainted — and 
I say 'it with great confidence — we shall like each other 
the more. I thank you for the kindness of this recep- 
tion. 

On the next evening a serenade was given to Mr. Lin- 
coln by the members of the Republican Association, and 
he then addressed the crowd which the occasion had 
brought together as follows: — 

My Friends: — I suppose that I may take this as a 
compliment paid to me, an4 as such please accept my 



AT WASHINGTON. 379 

thanks for it. I have reached this City of Washington 
under circumstances considerable differing from those 
under which any other man has ever reached it. I am 
here for the purpose of making an official position among 
the people, almost all of whom were politically opposed 
to me, and are yet opposed to me, as I suppose. 

I propose no lengthy address to you. I only propose 
to say, as I did on yesterday, when your worthy Mayor 
and Board of Aldermen called upon me, that I thought 
much of the ill-feeling that had existed between you and 
the people of your surroundings and that people from 
among whom I came, has depended, and now depends, 
upon a misunderstanding. 

I hope that, if things shall go along as prosperously as 
I believe we all desire they may, I may have it in my 
power to remove something of this misunderstanding; 
that I may be enabled to convince you, and the people 
of ^your section of the country, that we regard you as in 
all things our equals, and in all things entitled to the 
same respect and same treatment that we claim for our- 
selves; that we are in no wise disposed, if it were in our 
power, to oppress you, to deprive you of any of your 
rights under the Constitution of the United States, or 
even narrowly to split hairs with you in regard to these 
rights, but are determined to give you, as far as lies in 
our hands, all your rights under the Constitution— not 
grudgingly, but fully and fairly. [Applause.] I hope 
that, by thus dealing with you, we will become better ac- 
quainted, and better friends. 

And now, my friends, with these few remarks, and 
again returning my thanks for this compliment, and ex- 



3 So LINCOLN'S SPEECHES COMPLETE. 

pressing my desire to hear a little more of your good 
music, I bid you good-night. 



This closed Mr. Lincoln's public speeches down to the 
date of inauguration. This journey, made in fact on the 
eve of the great Rebellion, when the public mind was 
thoroughly aroused, was of the greatest interest to the 
whole country. And it is safe to say, that amidst all the 
complications, dangers and probable consequences, no 
one comprehended the situation more clearly, and with 
more serious earnestness than the President-elect. 
Abraham Lincoln. 




LINCOLN'S FIRST INAUGURAL ADDRESS. 

(Delivered March 4, 1861, at Washington.) 

Fellow-Citizens of the United States: — In com- 
pliance with a custom as old as the government itself, I 
appear before you to address you briefly, and to take, in 
your presence, the oath prescribed by the Constitution of 
the United States to be taken by the President before he 
enters on the execution of his office. 
position stated. 

"I do not consider it necessary, at present, for me to 
discuss those matters of administration about which there 
is no special anxiety or excitement. Apprehension 
seems to exist among the people of the southern states, 
that, by the accession of a republican administration, their 
property and their peace and personal security are to be 
endangered. There has never been any reasonable cause 
for such apprehension. Indeed, the most ample evidence 
to the contrary has all the while existed, and been open 
to their inspection. It is found in nearly all the publish- 
ed speeches of him who now addresses you. I do but 
quote from one of those speeches, when I declare that "I 
have no purpose directly or indirectly, to interfere with 
the institution of slavery in the states where it exists:'' 
I believe I have no lawful right to do so; and I have no 

(381) 



3S2 Lincoln's speeches complete; 

inclination to do so. Those who nominated and elect- 

ed me did so with the full knowledge that I had made 
this, and made many similar declarations, and had never 
recanted them. And more than this, they placed iri the 
platform, for my acceptance, and as a law td themselves 
and to me, the clear and emphatic resolution which I 
now read: 

"Resolved, That the maintenance inviolate of the 
i-igtits of the states, and especially the right of each state 
to brder and control its own domestic institutions ac- 
cording to its own judgement exclusively, is essential to 
that balance of power on which the perfection and 
fendurance of our political fabric depend; and we denounce 
the lawless invasion by armed force of the soil of any 
state or territory, no matter under what pretext, as among 
the gravest of crimes. " 

**I now reiterate these sentiments; and in doing so I 
only press upon the public attention the most conclusive 
evidence of which the case is susceptible, that the prop- 
erty, peace, and security of no section are to be in any- 
wise endangered by the now incoming administration. 

* T add, too, that all the protection, which, consistently 
with the Constitution and the laws, can be given, will be 
given to all the states when lawfully demanded, for what 
ever cause, as cheerfully to one section as to another. 

There is much controversy about the delivering up of 
fugitives from service or labor. The clause I now read 
Is as plainly written in the Constitution as any other of 
its provisions: 

"No person held to service or labor in one state under 
the laws thereof, escaping into another, shall, in conse-^ 



3S3 FIRST INAUGURAL SPEECH. 

quence of any law or regulation therein, be discharged 
from such service or labor, but shall be delivered up on 
claim of the party to v^hom such service or labor may be 
due.' 

''It is scarcely questioned that this provision was in- 
tended by those who made it for the reclaiming of what 
we call fugitive slaves; and the intention of the lawgiver 
is the law. 

' *A11 members of Congress swear their support to the 
whole Constitution — to this provision as well as any other. 
To the proposition, then, that slaves whose cases come 
Within the terms of this clause 'shall be delivered up,' 
their oaths are unanimous. Now, if they would make 
the effort in good temper, could they not, with nearly 
equal unanimity, frame and pass a law by means of which 
tto keep good that unanimous oath.? 

"There is some difference of opinion whether this 
clause should be enforced by national or by state author- 
ity; but surely that difference is not a very material one. 
If the slave is to be surrendered, it can be but of little 
'consequence to him or to others by which authority it is 
done; and should any one, in any case, be content that 
this oath shall go unkept on a mere substantial contro- 
versy as to how it shall be kept.'* 

"Again, in any law upon this subject, ought not all 
the safeguards of liberty known in civilized and humane 
jurisprudence to be introduced, so that a free man be not, 
in any case, surrendered as a slave.? And might it not be 
well at the same time to provide by law for the enforce- 
ment of that clause in the Constitution which guarantees 
that 'the citizens ')f each state shall be entitled to all the 



384 Lincoln's speeches complete. 

privileges and immunties of citizens in the several states?^ 

NO MENTAL RESERVATIONS. 

'*I take the ofBcial oath to-day with no mental reserva- 
tions, and with no purpose to construe the Constitution 
or laws by any hypercritical rules; and while I do not 
choose now to specify particular acts of Congress as pro- 
per to be enforced, I do suggest that it will be much safer 
for all, both in official and private stations, to conform to 
and abide by all those acts which stand unrepealed, than 
to violate any of them, trusting to find impunity in hav- 
ing them held to be unconstitutional. 

"It is seventy-two years since the first inauguration of 
a President under our national Constitution. During that 
period fifteen different and very distinguished citizens 
have in succession administered the executive branch of 
the government. They have conducted it through many 
perils, 'and generally with great success. Yet, with all 
this scope for precedent, I now enter upon the same task, 
for the brief constitutional term of fonr years, under great 
and peculiar difficulties. 

"I HOLD THE UNION OF THESE STATES IS PERPETUAL." 

"A disruption of the Federal Union, heretofore only 
menaced, is now formidably attempted. I hold that in 
the contemplation of universal law and of the Consti^tiw... 
tion, the union of these states is perpetual. Perpe,i^iii|:y 
is imphed, if not expressed, in the fundamental law of 
all national governments. It is safe to assQyt that no,, 
government proper ever had a provisioxv int i;tS; orgg.nfe: 
law for its own termination. Conti?iiiii!€^ to execute alt the 
express provisions of our nati^ali Constiitu^Uo©-, and the 



385 FIRST INAUGURAL SPEECH. 

Union will endure forever, it being impossible to destroy 
except by some action not provided for in the instrument 
itself. 

'•Again, if the United States be not a government pro- 
per, but an association of states in the nature of a con- 
tract merely, can it, as a contract, be peaceably unmade 
by less than all the parties w^ho made it.^ One party to 
ci contract may violate it — break it, so to speak; but does 
it not require all to lawfully rescind it.'^ Descending from 
these general principles, we find the proposition that in 
legal contemplation the Union is perpetual, confirmed by 
the history of the Union itself. 

"The Union is much older than the Constitution. It 
was formed, in fact, by the Articles of Association in 
1774. It was matured and continued in the Declaration 
of Independence in 1776. It was further matured, and 
the faith of all the then thirteen states expressly plighted 
and engagad that it should be perpetual, by the Articles 
of the Confederation, in 1778; and, finally, in 1787, one 
of the declared objects for ordaining and establishing the 
Constitution was to form a more perfect union. But if 
the destruction of the Union by one or by part only of 
the states be lawfully possible, the Union is less perfect 
than before, the Constitution having lost the vital element 
of perpetuity. 

, "It follows from these views that no state, upon its 
owu mere motion, can lawfully get out of the Union; that 
resolves and ordinances to that effect are legally void; 
and that acts of violence within any state or states against 
the authority of the United States are insurrectionary or 
revolutionary, according to circumstances. 



386 LINCOLNS SPEECHES COMPLETE. 

"I therefore consider that, in view of the Constitution 
and the laws, the Union is unbroken, and, to the extent 
of my abihty, I shall take care, as the Constitution itself 
expressly enjoins upon me, that the laws of the Union 
shall be faithfully executed in all the states. Doing this, 
which I deem to be only a simple duty on my part, I 
shall perfectly perform it, so far as is practicable, unless 
my rightful masters, the American people, shall withhold 
the requisition, or in some authoritative manner direct 
the contrary. 

"I trust this will not be regarded as a menace, but 
only as the declared purpose of the Union that it will 
constitutionally defend and maintain itself. 

''In doing this there need be no bloodshed or violence, 
and there shall be none unless it is forced upon the na- 
tional authority. 

WHAT SHALL BE DONE.^ 

"The power confided to me will be used to hold, oc- 
cupy, and possess the property and places belonging to 
the government, and collect the duties and imposts; but 
beyond what may be necessary for these objects there 
will be no invasion, no using of force against or among 
the people anywhere. 

''Where hostility to the United States shall be so great 
and so universal as to prevent competent resident citizens 
from holding federal offices, there will be no attempt to 
force obnoxious strangers among the people that object. 
While strict legal right may exist of the government to 
enforce the exercise of these offices, the attempt to do so 
would be so irritating, and so nearly impracticable with- 



387 FIRST INAUGURAL SPEECH. 

al, that I deem it best to forego for the time the uses of 
such offices. 

' 'The mails, unless repelled, will continue to be fur- 
nished in all parts of the Union. 

"So far as possible, the people everywhere shall have 
that sense of perfect security which is most favorable to 
calm thought and reflection. 

"The course here indicated will be followed, unless 
current events and experience shall show a modification 
or change to be proper; and in every case and exigency 
my best discretion will be exercised according to the cir- 
cumstances actually existing, and with a view and hope 
of a peaceful solution of the national troubles, and the 
restoration of fraternal sympathies and affections. 

"That there are persons, in one section or another, 
who seek to destroy the Union at all events, and are glad 
of any pretext to do it, I will neither affirm nor deny. 
But if there be such, I need address no word to them. 

A WORD TO THOSE WHO LOVE THE UNION. 

To those, however, who really love the Union, may I 
not speak, before entering upon so grave a matter as the 
destruction of our national fabric, with all its benefits, 
its memories, and its hopes.? Would it not be well to 
ascertain why we do it.? Will you hazard so desperate 
a step, while any portion of the ills you fly from have no 
real existence.? Will you, while the certain ills you fly to 
are no greater than all the real ones you fly from? Will 
you risk the commission of so fearful a mistake? All pro- 
fess to be content in the Union if all constitutional rights 
can be maintained. Is it true, then, that any right, 
plainly written in the Constitution, has been denied? I 



38S Lincoln's siPEECMES coMPLfeTH. 

think not. Happily the human mind is so constituted 
that no party can reach to the audacity of doing this. 

"Think, if you can, of a single instance in which a 
plainly-written provision of the Constitution has ever 
been denied. If, by the mere force of numbers, a major- 
ity should deprive a minority of any clearly-written con- 
stitutional right, it might, in a moral point of viev/, 
justify revolution; it certainly would, if such right were a 
vital one. But such is not our case. 

"All the vital rights of minorities and of individuals 
are so plainly assured to them by affirmations and nega- 
tions, guaranties and prohibitions in the Constitution, 
that controversies never arise concerning them. But no 
organic law can ever be framed with provision specifi- 
cally applicable to every question which may occur in 
practical administration. No foresight can anticipate, 
nor any document of reasonable length contain, express 
provisions for all possible questions. Shall fugitives 
from labor be surrendered by national or by state author- 
ities.^ The Constitution does not expressly say. Must 
Congress protect slavery in the territories. !* The Con- 
stitution does not expressly say. From questions of this 
class, spring all our constitutional controversies, and we 
divide upon them into majorities and minorities. 

THE MAJORITIES VS. THE MINORITIES. 

"If the minority will not acquiesce, the majority must, 
or the government must cease. There is no alternative 
for continuing the government acquiescence on the one 
side or on the other. If a minority in such a case will 
secede rather than acquiesce, they make a precedent, 
which, in time will ruin and divide them, for a. minority 



FIRST INAUGURAL ADDRESS. 389 

of their own will secede from them whenever a majority 
refuses to be controlled by such a minority. For instance, 
why not any portion of a new confederacy, a year or two 
hence, arbitrarily secede again, precisely as portions of 
the present Union now claim to secede from it.-* All 
who cherish disunion sentiments are now being educated 
to the exact temper of doing this. Is there such a per- 
fect identity of interests among the states to compose a 
new Union as to produce harmony only, and prevent re- 
newed secession? Plainly, the central idea of secession 
is the essence of anarchy. —^ 

"A majority held in restraint by constitutional check ■ 
limitation, and always changing easily with deliberate 
changes of popular opinions and sentiments, is the only 
true sovereign of a free people. Whoever rejects it, 
does, of necessity, fly to anarchy or to despotism. Un- 
animity is impossible; the rule of a minority, as a per- 
manent arrangement, is wholly inadmissible. So that, 
rejecting the majority principle, anarchy or despotism,/ 
in some form, is all that is left. 

"I do not forget the position assumed by some that 
constitutional questions are to be decided by the Su- 
preme Court, nor do I deny that such decisions must be 
binding in any case upon the parties to a suit, as to the 
1 object of that suit, while they are also entitled to a very 
\high respect and consideration in all parallel cases by all 
other departments of the government; and while it is 
obviously possible that such decision may be erroneous 
in any given case, still the evil effect following it, being 
limited to that particular case, with the chance that it 
may be overruled and never become a precedent for 



390 Lincoln's speeches complete. 

other cases, can better be borne than could the evils of 
a different practice, 

*'At the same time the candid citizen must confess 
that, if the policy of the government upon the vital 
question affecting the whole people is to be irrevocably 
fixed by the decisions of the Supreme Court, the instant 
they are made, as in ordinary litigation between parties 
in personal action, the people will have ceased to be 
their own masters, unless having to that extent practi- 
cally resigned theiif government into the hands of that 
eminent tribunal. / 

' 'Nor is there in this view any assault upon the court 
or the judges. It is a duty from which they may not 
shrink, to decide cases properly brought before them; 
and it is no fault of theirs if others seek to turn their 
decisions to political purposes. One section of our 
country believes slavery is right, and ought to be extend- 
ed, while the other believes it is wrong, and ought not to 
be extended; and this is the only substantial dispute; 
and the fugitive slave clause of the Constitution and the 
law of the suppression of the foreign slave trade, are 
each as well enforced, perhaps, as any law can ever be 
in a community where the moral sense of the people im- 
perfectly supports the law itself. The great body of the 
people abide by the dry legal obligation in both cases, 
and a few break over in each. This, I think, cannot be 
perfectly cured, and it would be worse, in both cases, 
after the separation of the sections, than before. The 
foreign slave trade, now imperfectly suppressed would 
be ultimately revived, without restriction, in one sec- 
tion; while fugitive slaves, now only partially surrender- 



FIRST INAUGURAL ADDRESS. 39 1 

ed, would not be surrendered at all by the other. 

' 'WE CANNOT SEPARATE. " 

"Physically speaking we can not separate; we can not 
remove our respective sections from each other, nor 
build an impassable wall between them. A husband and 
wife may be divorced, and go out of the presence and be- 
yond the reach of each other, but the different parts of our 
country cannot do this. They can but remain face to 
face; and intercourse, either amicable or hostile, must 
continue between them. Is it possible, then, to make 
that intercourse more advantageous or more satisfactory 
after separation than before.^ Can aliens make treaties 
easier than friends can make laws.'* Can treaties be more 
faithfully enforced between aliens than laws can among 
friends.? Suppose you go to war, you cannot fight 
always; and when, after much loss on both sides, and no 
gain on either, you cease fighting, the identical questions 
as to terms of intercourse are again upon you. 

"THE PEOPLE." . " /^ 

"This country, with its institutions, belongs to the I ^ 
people who inhabit it. When ever they, shall grow ' 
weary of the existing government, they can exercise 
their constitutional right of amending, or their revolu- 
tionary right to dismember or overthrow it. I cannot be 
ignorant of the fact that many worthy and patriotic 
citizens are desirous of having the national Constitution 
amended. While I make no recommendation of amend- 
ment, I fully recognize the full authority of the people | 
over the whole subject, to be exercised in either of the ; 
modes prescribed in the instrument itself, and I should, 
under existing circumstances, favor rather than oppose i 



392 LINCOLN S SPEECHES COMPLETE. 

a fair opportunity being afforded the people to act upon 
it. 

'•I will venture to add, that to me the convention 
mode seems preferable, in that it allows amendments to 
originate with the people themselves, instead of only 
permitting them to take or reject propositions originated 
by others not especially chosen for the purpose, and 
which might not be precisely such as they would wish 
either to accept or refuse. I understand that a pro- 
posed amendment to the Constitution (which amend- 
ment, however, I have not seen) has pfssed Congress, 
to the effect that the federal government shall never 
interfere with the domestic institutions of states, in- 
cluding that of persons held to service. To avoid mis- 
construction of what I have said; I depart from my pur- 
pose not to speak of particular amendments, so far as to 
say that, holding such a provison to now be implied 
constitutional law, I have no objection to its being made 
express and irrevocable. 

* 'THE ULTIMATE JUSTICE OF THE PEOPLE. " 

' 'The chief magistrate derives all his authority from 
the people, and they have conferred none upon him to 
fix the terms for the separation of the states. The 
people themselves, also, can do this if they choose, but 
the executive, as such, has nothing to do with it. His 
duty is to administer the present government as it came 
to his hands, and to transmit it unimpaired by him to 
his successor. Why should there not be a patient con- 
fidence in the ultimate justice of the people.? Is there 
any better or equal hope in the world? In our 



FIRST INAUGURAL ADDRESS. * 393 

present differences is either party without faith of being 
in the right? If the Almighty Ruler of nations, with his 
eternal truth and justice, be on your side of the North, 
or on yours of the South, that truth and that justice will 
surely prevail by the judgment of this great tribunal, the 
American people, By the frame of the government 
under which we live, this same people has wisel}'' given 
their public servants but little power for mischief, and 
have with equal wisdom provided for the return of that' 
little to their own hands at very short intervals. While 
the people retain their virtue and vigilance, no adminis- 
tration, by any extreme wickedness or folly, can very 
seriously injure the government in the short space of 
four years. 

"MY COUNTRYMEN ONE AND ALL." 

"My countrymen, one and all, think calmly and well 
upon this whole subject. Nothing valuable can be lost 
by taking time. 

"If there be an object to hurry any of you, in hot 
haste, to a step which you would never take deliberately, 
that object will be frustrated by taking time: but no 
good object can be frustrated by it. 

"Such of you as are now dissatisfied still have the old 
Constitution unimpaired, and, on the sensitive point, 
the laws of your own framing under it; while the new 
administration will have no immediate power, if it 
would, to change either. 

"If it were admitted that you who are dissatisfied hold 
the right side in the dispute, there is still no single reason 
for precipitate action. Intelligence, patriotsm, Christ- 
ianity, and a firm reliance on Him who has never yet 



394 • LINCOLN S SPEECHES COMPLETE. 

forsaken this favored land, are still competent to adjust, 
in the best way, all our present difficulties. 

*'In your hands, my dissatisfied fellow-countrymen, 
and not in mine, is the momentous issue of civil war. 
The government will not assail you. 

* 'You can have no conflict without being yourselves the 
aggressors. You have no oath registered in Heaven to 
destroy the government; while I shall have the most 
solemn one to preserve, protect, and defend it. 

"I am loth to close. We are not enemies, but friends. 
We must not be enemies. Though passion may have 
strained, it must not break our bonds of affection. 

'The mystic cords of memory, stretching from 
every battle-field and patriot grave to every living heart 
and hearthstone all over this broad land, will yet swell 
the chorus of the Union, when again touched, as surely 
they will be, by the better angels of our nature. " 



The address delivered and the oath administered, the 
august ceremonies of the occasion were concluded; and, 
passing back through the Senate Chamber, the President 
was escorted to the White House, where Mr. Buchanan 
took leave of him, and where the people were received 
by him in large numbers. Mr Lincoln, on being asked 
whether he felt frightened while delivering his address, 
in consequence of the threats of assassination, replied 
that he had frequently experienced greater fear in ad- 
dressing a dozen western men on the subject of 
temperance. 



GRADUAL EMANCIPATION. 

(Delivered before the Senators and Congressmen of 
the Border Southern States in the Executive Mansion, 
July, I2th 1862.) 

A few days before the adjournment, the President, 
evidently looking forward to the necessity of a more rad- 
ical and decisive policy in regard to Slavery, invited the 
Senators and Representatives of the border Slave States 
to a conference. The disastrous Peninsular campaign 
was now over, and depression prevailed throughout the 
country. The war must somehow be ended, with the 
rebellion overthrown; and the employment of every 
effective and legitimate war measure, he felt to be now 
demanded. He desired the great change to come as 
lightly as possible on the still loyal Slave States, and it 
was in this spirit that the interview was solicited by him. 
Having convened at the Executive Mansion, on the 12th 
of July, these Representatives were addressed by Mr. 
Lincoln (reading v^hat he had carefully prepared for the 
occasion) as follows: — 

Gentlemen: After the adjournment of Congress, 
now near, I shall have no opportunity of seeing you for 
several months. Believing that you of the Border 

States hold more power for good than any other equal 
number of members, I feel it a duty which I cannot 
justifiably waive to make this appeal to you. 

I intend no reproach or complaints when I assure you 
that, in my opinion, if you all had voted for the resolu- 

(395) 



396 Lincoln's speeches complete. 

tion in the gradual emancipation message of last March, 
the war would now be substantially ended. And the 
plan therein proposed is yet one of the most potent and 
swift means of ending it. Let the States which are in 
rebellion see definitely and certainly that in no event 
will the States you represent ever join their proposed 
Confedaracy, and they cannot much longer maintain the 
contest. But you can not divest them of their hope to 
ultimately have you with them so long as you show a 
determination to perpetuate the institution within your 
own States. Beat them at elections, as you have over- 
whelmingly done, and, nothing daunted, they still claim 
you as their own. You and I know what the lever of 
their power is. Break that lever before their faces, and 
they can shake you no more forever. 

Most of you have treated me with kindness and con- 
sideration, and I trust you will not now think I im- 
properly touch what is exclusively your own, when, for 
the sake of the whole country, I ask "Can you, for your 
States, do better than to take the course I urge.?" Dis- 
carding punctilio and maxims adapted to more manage- 
able times, and looking only to the unprecedentedly 
stern facts of our case, can you do better in any possible 
event.? You prefer that the constitutional relations of 
the States to the nation shall be practically restored 
without disturbance of the institution; and if this were 
done, my whole duty in this respect, under the Con- 
stitution and my oath of office, would be performed. 
But it is not done, and we are trying to accomplish it by 
war. The incidents of war ran not be avoided. If the 
war continues long, as it must if the object be not sooner 



GRADUAL EMAKCiPATION. 397 

attained, the institution in your States will be ex- 
tinguished by mere friction and abrasion — by the mere 
incidents of the war. It will be gone, and you will have 
nothing valuable in lieu of it. Much of its value is gone 
already. How much better for you and for your people 
to take the step which at once shortens the war, and 
secures substantial compensation for that which is sure 
to be wholly lost in any other event! How much better 
to thus save the money which else we sink forever in the 
war! How much better to do it while we can, lest 
the war, ere long, render us pecuniarily unable to do it! 
How much better for you, as seller, and the nation, as 
buyer, to sell out and buy out that without which the 
war could never have been, than to sink both the 
thing to be sold and the price of it, in cutting one 
another's throats! 

I do not speak of emancipation at once, but of a de- 
cision at once to emancipate gradually. Room in South 
America for colonization can be obtained cheaply and in 
abundance, and when numbers shall be large enough to 
be company and encouragement for one another, the 
freed people will not be so reluctant to go. 

I am pressed with a difficulty not yet mentioned — one 
which threatens division among those who, united, are 
none too strong. An instant of it is known to you. 
General Hunter is an honest man. He was, and I hope 
still is, my friend. I valued him none the less for his 
agreeing with me in the general wish that all men every 
where could be freed. He proclaimed all men free with- 
in certain States, and I repudiated the proclamation. 
He expected more good and less harm from the measure 



398 Lincoln's speeches complete. 

than I could belive would follow. Yet, in repudiating it, 
I gave dissatisfaction, if not offence, to many whose sup- 
port the country cannot afford to lose. And this is not 
the end of it. The pressure in this direction is still upon 
me, and is increasing. By conceding what I now ask 
you can relieve me, and, much more, can relieve the 
country in this important point. 

Upon these consideration, I have again begged your at- 
tention to the Message of March last. Before leaving the 
Capitol, consider and discuss it among yourselves. You 
are patriots and statesmen, and as such, I pray you consider 
this proposition, and, at the least, commend it to the 
consideration of 3'Our States and people. As you would 
perpetuate popular government for the best people in 
the world, I beseech you that you do in no wise omit 
this. Our common country is in great peril, demanding 
the loftiest views and boldest action to bring a speedy 
relief. Once relieved, its form of government is saved 
to the world: its beloved history and cherished mem- 
ories are vindicated, and its happy future fully assured 
and rendered inconceivably grand. To you, more than 
to any others, the privilege is given to assure that happi- 
ness, and swell the grandeur, and to link your own 
names therewith forever. 



SHIELDING GEN. McCLELLAN. 

(Aug. 6th 1862, at Washington.) 

The following remarks were made by Mr. Lincoln at a 
war meeting held at Washington on the 6th of August, 
after the retreat to the James River, and just before the 



SHIELDING m'cLELLAK. 399 

Withdrawal of the army from the Peninsula:-— 

Fellow-Citizens: — I believe there is no precedent 
for my appearing before you on this occasion, bnt it is 
also true that there is no precedent for your being here 
yourselves, and I ofTer, in justification of myself and of 
you, that, upon examination, I have found nothing in 
the Constitution against it. I, however, have an im- 
pression that there are younger gentlemen who will en- 
tertain you better, and better address your understanding 
than I will or could, and therefore I propose but to de- 
tain you a moment longer. 

I am very little inclined on any occasion to say any 
thing unless I hope to produce some good by it. The 
only thing I think of just now not likely to be better 
said by some one else, is a matter in which we have 
heard some other person blamed for what I did myself. 
There has been a very wide-spread attempt to have a 
quarrel between General McClellan and the Secretary of 
War. Now I occupy a position that enables me to ob- 
serve, that these two gentlemen are not nearly as deep 
in the quarrel as some pretending to be their friends. 
General McClellan's attitude is such that, in the very 
selfishness of his nature, he cannot but wish to be suc- 
cessful, and I hope he will — and the Secretary of War 
is in precisely the same situation. If the military com- 
manders in the field cannot be successfull, not only the 
Secretary of War, but myself, for the time being the 
master of them both, cannot but be failures. I know 
General McClellan wishes to be successful, and I know 
he does not wish it any more than the Secretary of War 
for him, and both of them together no more than I wish 



400 Lincoln's speeches complete, 

it. Sometimes we have a dispute about how many men 
General McClellan has had, and those who would dis- 
parage him say that he has had a very large number, 
and those who would disparage the Secretary of War 
insist that General McClellan has had a very small 
number. The basis for this is, there is always a wide 
difference, and on this occasion, perhaps a wider one 
than usual, between the grand total on McClellan's rolls 
and the men actually fit for duty; and those who would 
disparage him talk of the grand total on paper, and 
those who would disparage the Secretary of war talk of 
those at present fit for duty. General McClellan has 
sometimes asked for things that the Secretary of War 
did not give him. General McClellan is not to blame 
for asking what he wanted and needed, and the Secre- 
tary of War is not to blame for not giving when he had 
none to give. And I say here, as far as I know, the 
Secretary of War has withheld no one thing at any time 
in my power to give him. I have no accusation against 
him. I believe he is a brave and able man, and I stand 
here, as justice requires me to do, to take upon myself 
what has been charged on the Secretary of War, as with- 
holding from him. 

I have talked longer than I expected to do, and now 
I avail myself of my privilege of saying no more. 



TO A DEPUTATION OF RELIGIOUS MEN 

FROM CHICAGO, WHO REQUEST IMMEDIATE 

EMANCIPATION. 

(Delivered at Washington, Sept. 13, 1862.) 

Gentlemen:— The subject presented in the memorial 
is one upon which I have thought much for weeks past, 
and I may even say for months. I am approached with 
the most opposite opinions and advice, and that 
by rehgious men, who are equally certain that they 
represent the Divine will. I am sure that either the one 
or the other class is mistaken in that belief, and perhaps 
in some respects both. I hope it will not be irreverent 
for me to say that if it is probable that God would reveal 
his will to others, on a point so connected with my duty, 
it might be supposed he would reveal it directly to me; 
for, unless I am more deceived in myself than I often 
am, it is my earnest desire to know the will of Provi- 
dence in this matter. And if I can learn what it is I will 
do it! These are not, however, the days of miracles, 
and I suppose it will be granted that I am not to ex- 
pect a direct revelation. I must study the plain physi- 
cal facts of the case, ascertain what is possible, and 
learn what appears to be wise and right. 

The subject is difficult, and good men do not agree. 
For instance, the other day, four gentlemen of standing 
and intelhgence from New York called as a delegation on 
business connections with the war; but before leaving 

(401) 



402 LINCOLN S SPEECHES COMPLETE. 

two of them earnestly besought me to proclaim general 
emancipation, upon which the other two at once attack- 
ed them. You know also that the last session of Con- 
gress had a decided majority of antislavery men, yet 
they could not unite on this policy. And the same is 
true of the religious people. Why, the rebel soldiers 
are praying with a great deal more earnestness, I fear, 
than our own troops, and expecting God to favor their 
side: for one of our soldiers who had been taken prisoner 
told Senator Wilson a few days since that he met noth- 
ing so discouraging as the evident sincerity of those he 
was among in their prayers. But we will talk over the 
merits of the case. 

What good would a proclamation of emancipation 
from me do, especially as we are now situated.^ I do 
not want to issue a document that the whole world will 
see must necessarily be inoperative, like the Pope's bull 
against the comet! Would my word free the slaves, 
when I cannot even enforce the Constitution in the rebel 
;States.? Is there a single court, or magistrate, or 

individual that would be influenced by it there? And 
^wha>t reason is there to think it would have any greater 
(effect upon the slaves than the late law of Congress, 
\\vhich I afp>proved, and which offers protection and free- 
4som to the s'l'S-yes of rebel masters who come within our 
lines? Yet I can>not learn that that law has caused a 
single sl-ay^ tp come over to us. And suppose they 
could be inidwoed by ^ ^acclamation of freedom from me 
to throw themselves ii^pon .-iis, >vhat should we do with 
tbem.? How can aw^ ifeed an4(Car,fe^or such a multitude? 
General Butler wrote m§ .a fe^v days since that he was 



TO A DEPUTATION OF CHICAGO MINISTERS. 403 

issuing more rations to the slaves who have rushed to 
him than to all the white troops under his command. 
They eat, and that is all; thojgh it is true General 
Butler is feeding the whites also by the thousand; for it 
nearly amounts to a famine there. If, now, the pressure ' 
of the war should call off our forces from New Orleans 
to defend some other point, what is to prevent the 
masters from reducing the blacks to slavery again. ^ For 
I am told whenever the rebels take any black prisoners, 
free or slave, they immediatly auction them off! They 
did so with those they took from a boat that was aground 
in the Tennessee River a few days ago. And then I am 
very ungenerously attacked for it! For instance, when,, 
after the late battles at and near Bull Run, an expedition' 
went out from Washington under a flag of truce to bury 
the dead and bring in the wounded, and the rebels seized] 
the blacks who went along to help, and sent them into 
slavery, Horace Greely said in his paper that the Gov- 
ernment would probably do nothing about it. What 
could I do.^ 

Now then, tell me, if you please, what passible result of 
good would follow the issumg of such a proclamatiom as 
you desire.? Understand, I raise no objections against 
it on legal or constitutional grounds,, for, as commander- 
in-chief of the army and navy, in time of war I suppose 
that I have a right to take any measure which may 
best subdue the enemy; noi; do I urge objections to s* 
moral nature, in view of possible consequence of insuf^ 
rection and massacre at the South. I view this ma^cter 
as a practical w?tr njeasure, to be decided on according 
to the adv^n^tages or disadvantages it may offer to tUe,j 
suppressiiop; ol the rebellion. 



404 Lincoln's speeches cqmplete, 

(The committee replied to these remarks, insisting that 
a proclamation of emancipation would secure at once the 
sympathy of Europe and the civilized world; and that 
as slavery was clearly the cause and origin of the rebel- 
lion, it was simply just, and in accordance with the 
word of God, that it should be abolished. To these re- 
marks the President responded as follows: — ) 

I admit that slavery is at the root of the rebellion, or 
at least its sina qua non. The ambition of politicians 
may have instigated them to act, but they would have 
been impotent without slavery as their instrument. I 
will also concede that emancipation would help us in 
Europe, and convince them that we are incited by some- 
thing more than ambition. I grant, farther, that it would 1 
help somewhat at the North, though not so much, I fear 
as you and those you represent imagine. Still some addi- 
tional strength would be added in that way to the war, 
and then, unquestionably, it would weaken the rebels hy 
drawing of their laborers, which is of great importance; 
but I am not so sure we could do much with the blacks. 
If we were to arm them, I fear that in a few weeks the 
arms would be in the hands of the rebels; and, indeed, 
thus far, we have not had arms enough to equip our 
white troops. I will mention another thing, though it 
meet only your scorn and contempt. There are fifty 
thousand bayonets in the Union army from the Border 
Slave States. It would be a serious matter if, in con- 
sequence of a proclamation such as you desire, they 
should go oy^r to the rebels. I do not think tb^ey. all^ 
would— 3|>ot so many indeed, as a year ago, or; as; six 
ruaijiths ago — not so many to-day as yesterdaj^.. Every 



TO A DEPUTATION OF CHICAGO MINISTERS. 405 

day increases their Union feeling. They are also get- 
ting their pride enlisted, and want to beat the rebels. 
Let me say one thing more; I think you should admit 
that we already have an important principle to rally and 
unite the people, in the fact that constitutional govern- 
ment is at stake. This is a fundamental idea going 
down as deep as anything. 

Do not misunderstand me because I have mentioned 
these objections. They indicate the difficulties that 
have thus far prevented my action in some such way as 
you desire. I have not decided against a proclamation 
of liberty to the slaves, but hold the matter under ad- 
visement. And I can assure you that the subject is on 
my mind, by day and by night, more than any other. 

Whatever shall appear to be God's will that I will do. 
I trust that in the freedom with which I have canvassed 
your views I have not in any respect injured your feel- 
ings. 




THE PRELIMINARY EMANCIPATION PROCLA- 
MATION. 
This proclamation was issued September 22nd, 1862. 
It was, however, only a preliminary proclamation. It 
only declared free the slaves of those states and those 
sections of states which should be in rebellion on the 
1st of January, 1863, leaving to every disloyal state an 
opportunity to save its institution by becoming loyal, and 
doing what it could to save the Union: 

PROCLAMATION. 

"I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States 
of America, and Commander-in-Chief of the army and 
navy thereof, do hereby proclaim and declare that here- 
a ter, as heretofore, the war will be prosecuted for the 
object of practically restoring the constitutional relation 
between the United States and each of the states, and 
the people thereof, in which states that relation is or may 
be suspended or disturbed. 

* 'That it is my purpose, upon the next meeting of Con- 
gress, to again recommend the adoption of a practical 
measure tendering pecuniary aid to the free acceptance 
or rejection of all slave states so-called the people whereof 
may not then be in rebellion against the United States, 
and which states, may then have voluntarily adopted, or 
thereafter may voluntarily adopt, immediate or gradual 
abolishment of slavery within their respective limits; and 
that the effort to colonize persons of African descent^ 

(406) 



PRELIMINARY PROCLAMATION. 4O7 

with their consent, npon this continent or elsewhere, 
with the previously obtained consent of the governments 
existing there, will be continued. 

' 'That on the first day of January, in the year of our 
Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, all 
persons held as slaves within any state, or designated 
part of a state, the people whereof shall then be in re- 
bellion against the United States, shall be then, thence- 
forward, and forever free; and the Executive Government 
of the United States, including the military and naval 
authority thereof, will recognize and maintain the freedom 
of such persons, and will do no act or acts to repress such 
persons, or any of them, in any effort they may make for 
their actual freedom. 

"That the Executive will, on the first day of January 
aforesaid, by proclamation, designate the states and 
parts of States, if any, in which the people therof re- 
spectively shall then be in rebellion against the United 
States; and that the fact that any state, or the people 
thereof, shall on that day be in good faith represented in 
the Congress of the United States, by members chosen 
thereto at elections wherein a majority of the qualified 
voters of such state shall have participated, shall, in the 
absence of strong countervailing testimony, be deemed 
conclusive evidence that such state, and the people there- 
of, are not then in rebellion against the United States. 

' 'That attention is hereby called to an act of Congress 
entitled *'An Act to make an additional Article of War," 
approved March 13th, 1862, and which act is in the 
words and figures following: 

"Beit enacted by the Senate and House of Repre- 



4o8 Lincoln's speeches complete. 

sentatives of the United States of America in Congress 
assembled, That hereafter the following shall be pro- 
mulgated as an additional article of war for the govern- 
ment of the army of the United States, and shall be obey- 
ed and observed as such: 

"article — All officers or persons in the military or 
naval service of the United States are porhibited from 
employing any of the forces under their respective com- 
mands for the purpose of returning fugitives from service 
or labor who may have escaped from any persons to 
whom such service or labor is claimed to be due; and any 
officer who shall be found guilty by a court-martial of 
violating this article shall be dismissed from the service." 

"Sec. 2. And be it further enacted. That this act 
shall take effect from and after its passage. " 

"Also, to the ninth and tenth sections of an act entitled 
*An act to suppress Insurrection, to banish Treason and 
Rebellion, to seize and confiscate Property of Rebels, and 
for other purposes,' approved July i6th, 1862, and which 
sections are in the words and figures folio- ing: 

"Sec 9. And be it further enacted, That all slaves of 
persons who shall hereafter be engaged in rebellion 
against the government of the United States, or who 
shall in any way give aid or comfort thereto, escaping 
from such persons and taking refuge within the lines of 
the army; and all slaves captured from such persons, or 
deserted by them, and ccming under the control of the 
government of the United States; and all slaves of such 
persons found on [or] being within any place occupied by 
rebel forces and afterwards occupied by forces of the 
United States, shall be deemed captives of war, and shall 



PRELIMINARY PROCLAMATION. 409 

be forever free of their servitude, and not again held as 
slaves. 

"Sec. 10 And be it further enacted, That no slave 
escaping into any state, territory, or the District of 
Columbia, from any other state, shall be delivered up, 
or in any way impeded or hindered of his liberty, except 
for crime, or some offense against the laws, unless the 
person claiming said fugitive shall first make oath that 
the person to whom the labor or service of such fugitive 
is alleged to be due is his lawful owner, and has not borne 
arms against the United States in the present rebellion, 
nor in anyway given aid and comfort thereto; and no per- 
son engaged in the military or naval service of the United 
States shall, under any pretense whatever, assume to de- 
cide on the validity of the claim of any person to the 
service or labor of any other person, or surrender up any 
such person to the claimant, on pain of being dismissed 
from the service." 

"And I do hereby enjoin upon and order all persons 
engaged in the military and naval service of the United 
States to observe, obey, and enforce, within their respec- 
tive spheres of service, the act and sections above recited. 

"And the Executive will in due time recommend that 
all citizens of the United States who shall have remained 
loyal thereto throughout the rebellion, shall (upon the 
restoration of the constitutional relation between the 
United States and their respective states, and people, if 
that relation shall have been suspended or disturbed) be 
compensated for all losses by acts of the United States, 
including the loss of slaves. 

"In witness whereof, I have hereunto set my hand, and 



41 o Lincoln's speeches complete. 

caused the seal of the United States to be affixed. 
''Done at the city of Washington, this tenth day of April, 
in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred 
[l. s.] and sixty-two and of the Independence of the 
United States the eighty-seventh. 

Abraham Lincoln. 
*'By the President: 
*'Wm. H. Seward, Secretary of State. " 
In the cabinet meeting held previous to the issue of the 
proclamation, Mr. Lincoln had concluded the reading of 
the third paragraph, when Mr. Seward interrupted him by 
saying: "Mr. President, I think that you should insert 
after the word, 'recognize' the words, 'and maintain.'' 
The President replied that he had fully considered the 
import of the expression, and that it was not his way to 
promise more than he was sure he could perform; and he 
was not prepared to say that he thought he was able to 
"maintain" this. Mr. Seward insisted that the ground 
should be taken, and the words finally went in. 



FIRST SPEECH AFTER THE PRELIMINARY PRO- 
CLAMATION. 
Two days after the issue of the proclamation, a large 
body or men assembled before the White House with 
music, and called for the President. He appeared, and 
addressed to them a few words of thanks for their 

courtesy saying: 

Fellow-Citizens: — I appear before you to do little 
more than acknowledge the courtesy you pay me, and to 



FIRST SPEECH AFTER PRELIMINARY PROCLAMATION. 4 II 

thank you for it. I have not been distinctly informed 
why it is that on this occasion, you appear to do me this 
honor, though I suppose it is because of the proclamation. 
What I did, I did after a very full deliberation, and under 
a very heavy and solemn sense of responsibility. I can 
only trust in God I have made no mistake. I shall make 
no attempt on this occasion to sustain what I have done 
or said by any comment. It is now for the country and 
the world to pass judgement, and may be take action upon 
it. I will say no more upon this subject. In my position I 
am environed with difficulties. Yet they are scarcely so 
great as the difficultiesof those who, upon the battle-field, 
are endeavoring to purchase with their blood and their 
lives the future happiness and prosperity of this country. 
Let us never forget them. On the 1 4th and 1 7th days of this 
present month there have been battles bravely, skilfully, 
and successfully fought. We do not yet know the parti- 
culars. Let us be sure that, in giving praise to certain 
individuals, we do no injustice to others. I only ask you, 
at the conclusion of these few remarks, to give three 
hearty cheers to all good and brave officers and men who 
fought those successful battles. 

(After two years of experience he was enabled to say: 
''As affairs have turned, it is the central act of my ad- 
ministration, and the great event of the ninteenth cen- 
tury.") 



THE FINAL EMANCIPATION PROCLAMATION. 

(Issued by President Lincoln, January i, 1863, at Washington.) 
"Whereas, on the twenty-second day of September, in 
the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and 
sixty-two, a proclamation was issued by the President 
of the United States, containing, among other things, the 
following, to wit: 

"That on the first day of January, in the year of our 
Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, all 
persons held as slaves within any state or designated part 
of a state, the people whereof shall tliQu be in rebellion 
against the United States, shall be then, thenceforward, 
and forever free; and the Executive government of the 
United States, including the military and naval authoritj' 
thereof, will recognize and maintain the freedom of such 
persons, and w^ill do no act or acts to repress such per- 
sons, or any of them, in any efforts they may make for 
their actual freedom. 

"That the Executive will, on the first day of January 
aforesaid, by proclamation, designate the states and parts 
of states, if any, in which the people thereof respectively 
shall then be in rebellion against the United States; and 
the fact that any state or the people thereof shall on that 
day be in good faith represented in the Congress of the 
United States, by members chosen thereto at elections 
wherein a majority of the qualified voters of such state 
shall have participated, shall, in the absence of strong 
countervailing testimony, be deemed conclusive evidence 

(412) 



EMANCIPATION PROCLAMATION. 413 

that such state, and the people thereof, are not then in 
rebelHon against the United States. 

''Now, therefore, I Abraham Lincoln, President of 
the United States, by virtue of the power in me vested 
as Commander-in-Chief of the army and navy of the 
United States in time of actual armed rebellion against 
the authority and government of the United States, and 
as a fit and necessary war measure for suppressing said 
rebellion, do, on the first day of January, in the year of 
our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, 
and in accordance with my purpose so to do, publicly 
proclaimed for the full period of one hundred days from 
the day first above mentioned, order and designate, as 
the states and parts of states wherein the people thereof 
respectively are this day in rebellion against the United 
States, the following, to wit: 

"Arkansas, Texas, Louisiana (except the parishes of 
St. Bernard, Plaquemine, Jefferson, St. John, St. 
Charles, St. James, Ascension, Assumption, Terra Bonne, 
Lafourche, St. Marie, St. Martin and Orleans, iucluding 
the city of New Orleans,) Mississippi, Alabama, Florida, 
Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina and Virginia 
(except the forty-eight counties designated as West Vir- 
ginia, and also the counties of Berkely, Accomac, North- 
ampton, Elizabeth City, York, Princess Anne, and Nor- 
folk, including the cities of Norfolk and Portsmouth,) and 
which excepted parts are for the present left precisely as; 
if this proclamation were not issued. 

"And, by virtue of the power and for the purpose 
aforesaid, I do order and declare that all persons held as 
slaves within said designated States and parts of States, 



414 Lincoln's speeches complete. 

are, and henceforward shall be free; and that the Execu-- 
tive Government of the United States, including the mil- 
itary and naval authorities thereof, will recognize and 
maintain the freedom of said persons. 

"And I hereby enjoin upon the people so declared to 
be free, to abstain from all violence, unless in necessary 
self-defence; and I recommend to them, that in all cases^ 
when allowed, they labor faithfully for reasonable wages. 

''And I further declare and make known that such 
persons of suitable condition will be received into the 
armed service of the United States, to garrison forts, 
positions, stations and other places, and to man vessels 
of all sorts in said service. 

*'And upon this act, sincerely believed to be an act of 
justice, warranted by the Constitution, upon military 
necessity, I invoke the considerate judgement of mankind, 
and the gracious favor of the Almighty God. 

"In testimony whereof, I have hereunto set my name, 
and caused the seal of the United States to be affixed. 
"Done at the city of Washington, this first day of Jan- 
uary, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight 
[l. s.] hundred and sixty-three, and of the Indepen- 
dence of the United States the eighty-seventh. 

Abraham Lincoln. 

"By the President: 
"William H. Seward, Secretary of State." 

A single paragraph in this proclamation was written 
by Secretary Chase. He had himself prepared a procla- 
mation, which embodied his views, and had submitted it 
to Mr. Lincoln. Mr. Lincoln selected from it this sen- 



EMANCIPATIOINJ PROCLAMATION. 41$ 

tence: ''And upon this act, believed to be an act of jus- 
tice warranted by the Constitution (upon mihtary neces- 
sity,) I invoke the considerate judgement of mankind 
and the gracious favor of Almighty God;" and adopted it, 
interpolating only the words between brackets. It is an 
illustration of Mr. Lincoln's freedom from vanity, first that 
he adopted the words at all, notwithstanding their dignity 
and beauty; and, second, that he freely told of the cir- 
cumstance, so that it found publicity through his own 
revelations. 



TO THE WORKING MEN. 

Early in the year, the working men of Manchester, 
Eng. sent Lincoln a letter, to which he gave a grateful 
and cordial reply. They, although greatly suffering in 
consequence of the war, sent him their sympathy; and in 
his reply, he said to them: 

"It has been often and studiously represented that the ' 
attempt to overthrow this government, which was built 
upon the foundation of human rights, and to substitute 
for it one which should rest exclusively upon the basis of 
human slavery, was likely to obtain the favor of Europe. 
Though the action of our disloyal citizens, the working 
men of Europe have been subjected to severe trials, for 
the purpose of forcing their sanction to that attempt. 
Under these circumstances, I cannot but regard your 
decisive utterance upon the question as an instance of 
sublime Christian heroism, which has not been surpassed 
in any age, or in any country."'- - ^' I do not doubt that 



4i6 

the sentiment you have expressed will be sustained by 
your great nation; and, on the other hand, I have no 
hesitation in assuring you that they will excite admira- 
tion, esteem, and the most reciprocal feelings of friend- 
\ ship among the American people. " 

EXTRACT FROM LINCOLN'S LETTER TO 
CONKLING. 

In a letter written August twenty-sixth, to James C. 
Conkling, in reply to an invitation to attend a mass 
meeting of "unconditional Union men," to be held at his 
old home in Springfield, Illinois, it is evident that Mr. 
Lincoln was hopeful and confident of results. In this 
letter he treated again of the subject of emancipation; 
and handled the clamorer for peace, the enemies of the 
Emancipation Proclamation, and the advocates of com- 
promise, with admirable skill. The closing paragraphs 
are peculiarly keen, clear and sparkling: 

"You say that you will not fight to free negroes. 
Some of them seem willing to fight for you; but no mat- 
ter. Fight you, then, exclusively to save the Union. 
Whenever you shall have conquered all resistance to the 
Union, if I shall urge you to continue fighting, it will be 
an apt time then for you to declare you will not fight to 
free negroes. I thought that, in your struggle for the 
Uuion, to that extent it weakened the enemy in his re- 
sistance to you. Do you think differently.^ I thought 
that whatever negroes can be got to do as soldiers, leaves 
just so much less for white soldiers to do in saving the 
Union. Does it appear otherwise to you.? But negroes 
like other people, act upon motives. Why should they 



TO CONKLING. 41/ 

'do anything for us, if we will do nothing for them? If 
they stake their lives for us, they must be prompted by 
the strongest motive, even the promise of freedom. And 
the promise being made must be kept. 

"The signs look better. The Father of Waters again 
goes unvexed to the sea. Thanks to the great North- 
west for it; nor yet wholly to them. Three hundred 
miles up they met New England, Empire, Keystone, and 
Jersey, hewing their way right and left. The sunny 
South, too, in more colors than one, also lent a helping 
hand. On the spot, their part of the history was jotted 
down in black and white. The job was a great national 
one; and let none be slighted who bore an honorable part 
in it. And whde those who have cleared the great river 
may well be proud, even that is not all. It is hard to 
say that anything has been more bravely and well done 
than at Antietam, Murfreesboro, Gettysburg, and on 
many fields of less note. Nor must Uncle Sam's web-feet 
be forgotten. At all the watery margins they have been 
present, not only on the deep sea, the broad bay, and 
the rapid river, but also up the narrow, muddy bayou, 
and wherever the ground was a little damp they have 
been and made their tracks. Thanks to all. For the 
great republic — for the principle it lives by and keeps 
alive — for man's vast future — thanks to all. 

"Peace does not appear so distant as it did. I hope it 
will come soon, and come to stay; and so come as to 
be worth the keeping in all future time. It will then 
have been proved that among free men there can be 
be no successful appeal from the ballot, to the bullet. 



41 8 LINCOLN*S SPEECHES COMPLETE. 

and that they who take such appeal are sure to lose 
their case and pay the cost. And there will be some 
black men who can remember that with silent tongue, 
and clinched teeth, and steady eye, and well-poised bay- 
onet, they have helped mankind on to this great consum- 
mation; while I fear there will be some white ones unable 
to forget that with malignant heart and deceitful speech 
they have striven to hinder it." 



A FOURTH OF JULY SPEECH. 

(Delivered, at Washington. July 1863.) 

The battle which resulted in the capture of Vicksburg, 
on the 4th of July, was immediately followed by that 
of Port Hudson, which was surrendered to General 
Banks, together with about seven thousand prisoners, 
fifty cannon, and a considerable: number of small arms. 
The whole course of the Mississippi, from its source to its 
mouth, was thus opened, and the Confederacy virtually 
separated into two parts, neither capable of rendering 
any effective assistance to the other. 

The great victories, by which the Fourth of July had 
been so signally and so gloriously commemorated, called 
forth the most enthusiastic rejoicing in every section of 
the country. Public meetings werp held in nearly all 
the cities and principal towns, at which eloquent speeches 
and earnest resolutions expressed the joy of the people, 
and testified their unflinching; purpose to prosecute the 



THE FOURTH OF JULY SPEECH. 419 

war until the rebellion should be extinguished. A large 
concourse of the citizens of Washington, preceded by a 
band of music, visited the residence of the President, 
and the members of his Cabinet — giving fhem, in suc- 
cession, the honors of a serenade — ^which the President 
acknowledged in the following remarks: — 

Fellow-Citizens: — I am very glad indeed to see you 
to-night, and yet I will not say I thank you, for this call; 
but I do most sincerely thank Almighty God foi the 
occasion on which you have called. How long ago is 
it.' — eighty odd years since, on the Fourth of July, for 
the first time, in the history of the world, a nation, by 
its representatives, assembled and declared as a self- 
evident truth, "that all men are created equal." That 
was the birthday of the United States of America. 
Since then the Fourth of July has had several very pop- 
ular recognitions. 

The two men most distinguished in the framing and 
support of the Declaration were Thomas Jefferson and 
John Adams — the one having penned it, and the other 
sustained it the most forcibly in debate — the only two 
of the fifty-five who signed it, and were elected Presi- 
dents of the United States. Precisely fifty years after 
they put their hands to the paper, it pleased Almighty 
God to take both from this stage of action. This was 
indeed an extraordinary and remarkable event in our 
history. 

Another President five years after, was called from 
this stage of existance on the same day and month of 
the year, and now on this last Fourth of July, passed, 
when we have a. gigantic rebellion, at the bottom of 



420 Lincoln's speeches complete. 

which is an effort to overthrow the principle that all men 
were created equal, we have the surrender of a most 
powerful position and army on that very day. And not 
only so, but in a succession of battles in Pennsylvania; 
near to us, through three days so rapidly fought that 
they might be called one great battle, on the first, second 
and third of the month of July; and on the fourth the 
cohorts of those who opposed the Declaration that all 
men are created equal, * 'turned tail" and run, [Long 
continued cheers.] 

Gentlemen, this is a glorious theme, and the occasion 
for a speech, but I am not prepared to make one worthy 
of the occasion. I would like to speak in terms of praise 
due to the many brave officers and soldiers who have 
fought in the cause of the Union and liberties of the 
country from the beginning of the war. These are try- 
ing occasions; not only in success, but for the want of 
success. I dislike to mention the name of one single 
officer, lest I might do wrong to those I might forget. 
Recent events bring up glorious names, and particular- 
ly prominent ones; but these I will not mention. Hav- 
ing said this much, I will now take the music. 



LINCOLN'S WONDERFUL SPEECH AT 
GETTYSBURG. 

(Delivered at the dedication of the Gettysburg National Cemetery on 
the Gettysburg battle field, Nov. 19, 1863.) 

Ladies and Gentlemen: — Fourscore and seven years 
ago our fathers brought forth upon this continent a new 
nation, conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the propo- 
sition that all men are created equal. Now we are en- 



Lincoln's wonderful speech at Gettysburg. 42 1 

gaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, 
or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long 
endure. We are met on a great battle-field of that war. 
We have come to dedicate a portion of that field as «. 
final resting-place for those who here gave their lives 
that that nation might live- It is altogether fitting and 
proper that we should do this. 

But in a larger sense we cannot dedicate, we cannot 
consecrate, we cannot hallow this ground. The brave 
men, living and dead, who struggeled here, have con- 
secrated it far above our power to add or detract. The 
world will little note, nor long remember, what we say 
here; but it can never forget what they did here. 

It is for us, the living, rather to be dedicated here to 
the unfinished work which they who fought here have 
thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be 
here dedicated to the great task remaining before us, 
that from these honord dead we take increased devotion 
to that cause for which they gave the last full measure 
of devotion; that we here highly resolve that these dead 
shall not have died in vain; that this nation, under God, 
shall have a new birth of freedom, and that the govern- 
ment OF the people, by the people, and for the 
people, shall not perish from the earth." 



''GOD BLESS THE WOMEN OF AMERICA." 

(On March t6 1864, at the close of a fair in Wash- 
ington, for the benefit of the sick and wounded soldiers 
of the army, President Lincoln, happened to be present, 
in response to loud and continuous calls, made the fol- 
lowing remarks: — 

Ladies and gentlemen: — I appear to say but a word. 
This extraordinary war in which we are engaged falls 
heavily upon all classes of people, but the most heavily 
upon the soldiers. For it has been said, all that a man 
hath will be give for his life; and while all contribute of 
their substance, the soldier puts his life at stake, and 
often yields it up in his country's cause. The highest 
merit, then, is due to the soldier. 

In this extraordinary war, extraordinary develop- 
ments have manifested themselves, such as have not 
been seen in former wars: and among these manifesta- 
tions nothing has been more remarkable than these fairs 
for the relief of suffering soldiers and their families. 
And the chief agents in these fairs are the women of 
America. 

I am not accustomed to the use of language of eulogy: 
I have never studied the art of paying compliments to 
women; but I must say, that if all that has been said 
by orators and poets since the creation of the world in 
praise of women were applied to the women of America, 
it would not do them justice for their conduct during 
this war. I will close saying, God bless the women of 
America! 

(422) 



MAN PROPOSES AND GOD DISPOSES. 

(At a fair in Baltimore for the Sanitary Commission.) 

Ladies and Gentlemen: — Calling to mind that we 
are in Baltimore, we cannot fail to note that the world 
moves. Looking upon these many people assembled 
here to serve, as they best may, the soldiers of the 
Union, it occurs at once that three years ago the same 
soldiers could not so much as pass through Baltimore. 
The change from then till now is both great and gratify- 
ing. Blessings on the brave men who have wrought 
the change, and the fair women who strive to reward 
them for it! 

But Baltimore suggests more than could happen with- 
in Baltimore. The change within Baltimore is part only 
of a far wider change. When the war began, three 
years ago, neither party, nor any man, expected it 
would last till now. Each looked for the end, in some 
way, long ere to-day. Neither did any anticipate 

that domestic slavery would be much affected by the 
war. But here we are; the war has not ended, and sla- 
very has been much affected — how much needs not now 
be recounted. . So true is it that man proposes and' God 
disposes. 

But we can seethe past, though we may not claim to 
have directed it; and seeing it, in this case, we feel 
more hopeful and confident for the future. 

The world has never had a good definition of the word 
liberty, and the American people, just now, are much in 
want of one. We all declare for liberty; but in using 
the same word we do not all mean the same thing. 

(423) 



424 * Lincoln's speeches complete. 

With some the word liberty may mean for each man to 
do as he pleases with himself, and the product of 
his labor; while with others the same word may mean 
for some men to do as they please with other men, andl 
the product of other men's labor. Here are two,, 
not only different, but incompatible things called by the 
same name, liberty. And it follows that each of the 
things is, by the respective parties, called by two dif- - 
ferent and incompatible names — liberty and tyranny. 

The shepherd drives the wolf from the sheep's throat, 
for which the sheep thanks the shepherd as his liberator, 
while the wolf denounces him for the same act, as the 
destroyer of liberty, especially as the sheep was a 
black one. Plainly, the sheep and the wolf are not 
agreed upon a definition of the word liberty; and precise- 
ly the same difference prevails to-day among us human . 
creatures, even in the North, and all professing to love 
liberty. Hence we behold the process by which thou- 
sands are daily passing from under the yoke of bondage 
hailed by some as the advance of liberty, and bewailed 
by others as the destruction of all liberty. . Recently, as 
it seems, the people of Maryland have been doing some- 
thing to define liberty, and thanks to them that, in what 
they have done, the wolf's dictionary has been repudia- 
ted. 

It is not very becoming for one in my position to make 
speeches at great length; but there is another subject 
upon which I feel that I ought to say a word. A painful 
rumor, true, I fear, has reached us, of the massacre, by 
the rebel forces at Fort Pillow, in the west end of Ten- 
nessee, on the Mississippi River, of son.\£ three huadied 



MAN PROPOSES AND GOD DISPOSES. 425'. 

colored soldiers and white officers, who had just been-, 
overpowered by their assailants, There seems to be- 
some anxiety in the public mind whether the govern- 
ment is doing its duty to the colored soldiers, and to- the; 
service, at this point. At the beginning of the war,, 
and for some time, the use of colored troops was ni^t 
contemplated; and how the change of purpose waiSi 
wrought, I will not now take time to explain. Upon a 
clear conviction of duty, I resolved to turn that element 
of strength to account; and I am responsible for it to the 
American people, to the Christian world, to history, and 
on my final account to God. Having determined to use 
the negro as a soldier, there is no way but to give him 
all the protection given to any other soldier. The diffi- 
culty is not in stating the principle but, in practically 
, applying it. It is a mistake to suppose the government 
is indifferent to this matter, or is not doing the best it 
can in regard to it. 

We do not to-day know that a colored soldier, has 
been- massacred by the rebels when made a prisoner. 
We fear it, believe it, I may say, but we do not know it. 
To take the life of one of their prisoners on the assump- 
tion that they murder ours, might be too serious, too 
cruel a mistake. We are having the Forf Pillow affair 
thoroughly investigated; and such investigation will 
probably show conclusively how the truth is. li, after 
all that has been said, it shall turn out that there has 
been no massacre at Fort Pillow, it will be almost safe 
to say there has been none, and will be none elsewhere. 
If there has been the massacre of three hundred there, 
or even the tenth part of three hundred, it will be con- 



.426 Lincoln's speeches complete. 

clusively proven; and being so proven, the retributation 
shall as surely come. It will be a matter of grave con- 
sideration in w^hat exact course to apply the retribution, 
.but in the supposed case, it must come. 



THE WAR. 

(In June, 1864 the President attended a fair at Phila- 
delphia, one of the largest that was held in all the coun- 
try. At a supper given to him there, the health of the 
President having been proposed as a toast, the President 
said in acknowledgment: — ) 

Ladies and Gentlemen: — I suppose that this toast is 
intended to open the way to me to say something. War 
at the best is terrible, and this of ours in its magnitude 
and duration is one of the most terrible the world has 
ever known. It has deranged business totally in many 
places and perhaps in all. It has destroyed property, 
destroyed life, and ruined homes. It has produced a 
national debt and a degree of taxation unprecedent in 
the history of this country. It has caused mourning 
among us until the heavens may almost be said to be 
hung in black. And yet it continues. It has had ac- 
companiments never before known in the history of the 
world. I mean the Sanitary and Christian Commissions, 
with their laT^ors for the relief of the soldiers, and the 
Volunteer Refreshment Saloons, understood better by 
those who hear me than by myself — (applause) — and 
these fairs, first begun at Chicago and next held in 
Boston, Cincinnati, and other cities. The motive and 
object that lie at the bottom of them is worthy of the 



THE WAR. 427 

most that we can do for the soldier who goes to fight the 
battles of his country. From the fair and tender hand 
of women is much, very much done for the soldier, con- 
tinually reminding him of the care and thought for him 
at home. The knowledge that he is not forgotten is 
grateful to his heart. (Applause.) Another view of 
these institutions is worthy of thought. They are vol- 
untary contributions, giving proof that the national re- 
sources are not at all exhausted, and that the national 
patriotism will sustain us through all. It is a pertinent; 
question, When is the war to end.^ i do not wish to 
name a day when it will end, lest the end should not 
come at the given time. We accepted this war, and did 
not begin it. (Deafening applause.) We accepted it 
for an object, and when that object is accomplished the 
war will end, and I hope to God that it will never end 
until that object is accomplished. (Great applause.) 
We are going through with our task, so far as I am con- 
cerned, if it takes us three years longer. I have not been 
in the habit of making predictions, but I am almost 
tempted now to hazard one. I will. It is, that Grant 
is this evening in a position, with Mead and Hancock, 
of Pennsylvania, whence he can never be dislodged by 
the enemy until Richmond is taken. If I shall discover 
that General Grant may be greatly facilitated in the 
capture of Richmond, by rapidly pouring to him a large 
number of armed men at the briefest notice, will you go? 
(Cries of "Yes"; Will you march on with him.^* 
(Cries of -'Yes, yes.") Then I shall call upon you when it 
is necessary. (Laughter and applause.) 



SPEECH AFTER BATTLE OF THE WILDERNESS. 

(Delivered in response to a Serenade May gfh, 1864 at the Whitehouse.) 

Fellow-Citizens: — I am very much obliged to you 
for the compHment of this call, though I apprehend it is 
owing more to the good news received to-day from the 
army than to a desire to see me. I am, indeed, very 
grateful to the brave men who have been struggling with 
the enemy in the field, to their noble commanders who 
have directed them, and especially to our Maker. Our 
commanders are following up their victories resolutely 
and successfully. I think, without knowing the parti- 
culars of the plans of Gen. Grant, that what has been 
accomplished is of more importance than at first appears. 
I believe I know (and am especially grateful to -know,) 
that Gen. Grant has not been jostled in his purpose; that 
he has made all his points; and to-day he is on his line, 
as he purposed before he moved his armies. I will vol- 
unteer to say that I am very glad of what has happened; 
but there is a great deal still to be done. While we are 
grateful to all the brave men and oiBcers for the events of 
the past two days, we should, above all, be very grateful 
to Almighty God, who gives us victory. 

There is enough yet before us requiring all loyal men 
and patriots to perform their share of the labor and fol- 
low the example of the modest General at the head of 
our armies, and sink all personal considerations for the 
sake of the country. I commend you to keep yourselves 
in the same tranquil mood that is characteristic of that 

(428) 



TO A DELEGATION OF METHODIST CLERGYMEN. 429 

l)rave and loyal man. I have said more than I expected 
when I came before you; repeating my thanks for this 
call, I bid you good bye. 



SPEECH IN RESPONSE TO A DELEGATION OF 
DISTINGUISHED METHODIST CLERGYMEN. 

(Delivered May 14th, 1864. 

Gentlemen: — In response to your address, allow me 
to attest the accuracy of its historical statements, indorse 
the sentiments it expresses, and thank you, in the na- 
tion's name, for the promise it gives. 

Nobly sustained, as the Government has been by all 
the churches, I would utter nothing which might in the 
least appear invidious against any. Yet, without this, it 
may fairly be said that the Methodist Episcopal Church, 
not less devoted than the best, is, by its greater numbers 
the most important of all. It is no fault in others that 
the Methodist Church sends more soldiers to the field, 
more nurses to the hospitals, and more prayers to heaven 
than any. God bless the Methodist Church; bless all the 
churches; and blessed be God, who, in this our great 
trial, giveth us the churches. 



There was some corresponding action on the part of 
nearly or quite all the general ecclesiastical bodies of the 
United States. *'A11 the churches," without regard to 
sectarian difference, not only confided in his high charac- 
ter, but also received from him a reciprocation of kindly 
feeling and thankfulness. 



LINCOLN'S SPEECH ON RECEIVING HIS RENOM- 
INATION FOR THE PRESIDENCY. 

Immediately after the Convention, a committee of one 
from each State represented therein, waited on the Pres- 
ident, orally commnnicating the fact of his renomination. 
Responding to the address of their Chairman, Mr. Lin- 
coln said: — 

Mr. Chairman and Gentlemen of the Committee: — 
I will neither conceal my gratification nor restrain the 
expression of my gratitude that the Union people through 
their convention, in the continued effort to save and ad- 
vance the nation, have deemed me not unworthy to re- 
:main in my present position. 

I know no reason to doubt that I ahall accept the 
•nominati6n tendered; and yet, perhaps, I should not de- 
clare definitely before reading and considering what is 
•called the platform. 

I will say now, however, I- approve the declaration in 
favor of so amending the Constitution as to prohibit 
slavery throughout the nation. When the people in re- 
Tolt, with a hundred days of explicit notice that they 
coiild within those days resume their allegiance without 
the overthrow of their institutions, and that they could 
not resume " it afterward, elected to stand out, such 
amendments to the Constitution as is now proposed be- 
came a fitting and necessary conclusion to the final suc- 
cess of the Union cause. Such alone can meet and cover 
all cavils. Now, the unconditional Union men. North 

[430] 



ON HIS RENOMINATION. 43 1 

and South, perceive its importance, and embrace it. In 
the joint names of Liberty and Union, let us labor to give 
it legal form and practical effect. 



SPEECH TO THE OHIO DELEGATION. 

In response to a call from the Ohio delegation in the 
Baltimore Convention, accompanied by Menter's band, of 
Cincinnati, the President remarked: 

Gentlemen: — I am very much obliged to you for this 
compliment. I have just been saying, and as I have 
just said, I will repeat it: The hardest of all speeches 
which I have to answer is a serenade. I never know 
what to say on such occasions. I suppose that you have 
done me this kindness in connection with the action of 
the Baltimore Convention which has recently taken place, 
and with which of course, I am very well satisfied- 
[Laughter and applause.] What we want still more than 
Baltimore Conventions or Presidential elections is suc- 
cess under General Grant. (Cries of "Good," and ap- 
plause.) I propose that you constantly bear in mind that 
the support you owe to the brave officers and soldiers in 
the field is of the very first importance, and we should 
therefore bend all our energies to that point. Now, with- 
out detaining you any longer, I propose that you help me 
close up what I am now saying with three rousing cheers 
for General Grant and the officers and soldiers under his 
command. 



RESPONSE TO THE NATIONAL UNION LEAGUE. 

In an interview with a delegation of the National 
Union League, in the East Room, he used substantially 
the following language — the homely illustrations at the 
close (and the manner of presenting it,) exciting prolonged 
laughter and applause: 

Gentlemen: — I can only say in response to the kind 
■remarks of your Chairman, as I suppose, that I am very 
grateful for the renewed confidence which has been ac- 
icorded to me both by the Convention and by the Nation- 
ral League. I am not insensible at all to the personal 
compliment there is in this, and yet I do not allow my- 
self to believe that any but a small portion of it is to be 
appropriated as a personal compliment. That really the 
Convention and the Union League assembled with a 
higher view — that of taking care of the interests of the 
country for the present and the great future — and that the 
part I am entitled to appropriate as a compliment is only 
that part which I may lay hold of as being the opinion 
of the Convention and of the League, that I am not en- 
tirely unworthy to be entrusted with the place which I 
have occupied for the last three years. But I do not al- 
low myself to suppose that either the Convention or the 
League have concluded to decide that I am either the 
greatest or the best man in America, but rather they have 
concluded that it is not best to swap horses while cross- 
ing the river, and have further concluded that I am not 
so poor a horse that they might not make a botcl\of it in 
trying to swap. 

[432] 



ACCEPTS THE NOMINATION. 

The Commitee to notify President Lincoln of his re- 
nomination subsequently transmitted to him a letter, for- 
mally announcing the choice of the Convention, in the 
course of which they said: 

We believe, sir, that the honest will of the Union men 
of the country was never more truly represented than in 
this Convention. Their purpose we believe to be the 
overthrow of armed rebels in the field, and the security of 
permanent peace and union, by liberty and justice under 
the Constitution. That these results are to be achieved 
amid cruel perplexities, they are fully aware. That they 
are to be reached only by cordial unanimity of couusel, 
is undeniable. That good men may sometimes differ as to 
the means and the time, they know. That in the con- 
duct of all human affairs the highest duty is to determine, 
in the angry conflict of passion, how much good may be 
practically accomplished, is their sincere persuasions. 
They have watched your official course, therefore with 
unflagging attention; and amid the bitter taunts of eager 
friends and the fierce denunciation of enemies, now 
moving too fast for some, now too slowly for others, they 
have seen you throughout this tremendous contest 
patient, sagacious, faithful, just; leaning upon the heart 
of the great mass of the people, and satisfied to be moved 
by its mighty pulsations. 

It is for this reason that, long before the Convention 
met, the popular instinct had plainly indicated you as its 

[433] 



434 Lincoln's speeches complete. 

candidate; and the Convention, therefore, merely record- 
ed the popular will. Your character and career prove you 
unswerving fidelity to the cardinal principles of American 
Liberty and of the American Constitution. In the name 
of that Liberty and Constitution, sir, we earnestly request 
your acceptance of this nomination. 

To this letter, Mr. Lincoln replied in the following 
words: 

Executive Mansion, ) 
Washington, June 27, 1864 ) 

Hon. William Dennison and others, a Committee of 
the Union National Convention: Gentlemen — Your 
letter of the 14th instant, formally notifying me that I 
have been nominated by the Convention, you represent 
for the Presidency of the United States, for four years 
from the 4th of March next, has been received. The 
nomination is gratefully accepted, as the resolutions of 
the Convention — called the platform — are heartily ap- 
proved. 

While the resolution in regard to the supplanting of 
republican government upon the Western Continent is 
fully concurred in, there might be misunderstanding were 
I not to say that the position of the Government in re- 
lation to the action of France and Mexico, as assumed 
through the State Department, and indorsed by the Con- 
vention, among the measures and acts of the Executive, 
vx/ill be faithfully maintainad so long as the state of facts 
shall leave that position pertinent and applicable. 

I am espectally gratified that the soldier and the sea- 
men were not forgotten by the Convention, as they for- 



SPEECH TO OHIO SOLDIERS. 435 

ever must and will be remembered by the grateful coun- 
try for whose salvation they devote their lives. 

Thanking you for the kind and complimentary terms in 
which you have communicated the nomination and other 
proceedings of the Convention, I subscribe myself. 
Your obedient servant, 

Abraham Lincoln. 

Everywhere through the loyal States, and not less 
among our heroic armies fighting for the Republic on dis- 
loyal soil, and among our brave forces aiioat on gunboats 
and men-of-war, the nomination of Abraham Lincoln to 
a second term was received with joy, and ratified with 
hearty good will. More than thirty years had passed 
since any President of the United States had received the 
honor of a re-election. Never, as yet, had any President 
from the North been chosen for a second term, although 
every Southern President, elected as such, until the time 
of Mr. Polk, had served for eight years. 



SPEECH TO OHIO SOLDIERS. 

(Delivered before a Regiment of Ohio "Hundred-Days Men," in Wash- 
ington, August i8, 1864.) 

Soldiers: — You are about to return to your homes and 
your friends, after having, as I learn, performed in camp 
a comparatively short term of duty in this great contest. 
I am greatly obliged tayou, and to all who have come 
forward at the call of their country. I wish it to be 
more generally understood what the country is now en- 
gaged in. We have, as all will agree, a free government 
where every man has a right to be equal with every 



436 LINCOLN'S SPEECHES COMPLETE. 

other man. In this great struggle this form of govern- 
ment and every term of human rights are endangered, if 
our enemies succeed. There is more involved in this 
contest than is realized by every one. There is involved 
in this struggle the question whether your children and 
my children shall enjoy the privileges we have enjoyed. 
I say this in order to impress upon you, if you are not 
already so impressed, that no small matter should divert 
us from our great purpose. 

There may be some inequalities in the practical appli- 
cation of our system. It is fair that each man shall pay 
in exact porportion to the value of his property; but if 
we should wait, before collecting a tax, to adjust the 
taxes upon each man in exact proportion with every other 
man, we should never collect any tax at all. There may 
be mistakes made sometimes; things may be done wrong 
while all the officers of the Government do all they can 
to prevent mistakes. But I beg of you, as citizens of 
this great Republic, not to let your minds be carried off 
from the great work we have before us. This struggle 
is too large for you to be diverted from it by any small 
matter. When you return to your homes, rise up to the 
height of a generation of men worthy of a free govern- 
ment, and we will carry out the great work we have com- 
menced. I return to you my sincere thanks for the honor 
you have done me this afternoon. 



SPEECH TO THE 148TH. OHIO REGIMENT. 

(Delivered at Washington, August 31, 1864.) 

Soldiers of the 148th Ohio: — I am most happy to 
meet you on this occasion. I understand that it has 
been your honorable privilege to stand, for a brief period, 
in the defense of your country, and that now you are on 
your way to your homes. I congratulate you, and those 
who are waiting to bid you welcome home from the war; 
and permit me, in the name of the people, to thank you 
for the part you have taken in this struggle for the life 
of the nation. You are soldiers of the Republic, every 
where honored and respected. Whenever I appear be- 
fore a body of soldiers, I feel tempted to talk to them of 
the nature of the struggle in which we are engaged. I 
look upon it as an attempt on the one hand to overwhelm 
and destroy the national existence, while on our part we 
are striving to maintain the government and institutions 
of our fathers, to enjoy them ourselves, and transmit 
them to our children, and our children's children for- 
ever. 

To do this, the constitutional administration of our 
Government must be sustained, and I beg of you not to 
allow your minds or your hearts to be diverted from the 
support of all necessary measures for that purpose, by 
any miserable picayune arguments addressed to your 
pockets, or inflammatory appeal made to your passions 
and your predjudices. 

It is vain and foolish to araign this man or that for the 
part lie has taken, or has not taken, and to hold the 

[437] 



438 Lincoln's speeches complete. 

Government responsible for his acts. In no administra- 
tion can there be perfect equality of action and uni- 
form satisfaction rendered by all. But the Government 
must be preserved in spite of the acts of any man or set 
of men. It is worthy of your every effort. Nowhere in 
the world is presented a Government of so much liberty 
and equality. To the humblest and poorest among us, 
are held out the highest privileges and positions. The 
present moment finds me at the White House, yet there 
is as good a chance for your children as there was for my 
father's. 

Again, I admonish you not to be turned from your 
stern purpose of defending our beloved country and its 
free institutions, by any arguments urged by ambitious 
and designing men, but stand fast to the Union and the 
old flag. Soldiers, I bid you God speed to your homes. 



SPEECH TO THE LOYAL MARYLANDERS. 

(Delivered Oct. ig, 1864 at the Executive Mansion, Washington, in Re- 
sponse to a Serenade.) 

Friends AND Fellow-Citizens: — I am notified that 
this is a compliment paid me by the loyal Marylanders 
resident in this District. I infer that the adoption of the 
new Constitution for that State furnishes the occasion, 
and that in your view the extirpation of slavery consti- 
tutes the chief merit of the new Constitution. Most 
heartily do I congratulate you and Maryland and the na- 
tion, and the world upon the event. I regret that it did 
not occur two years sooner, which I am sure would have 
saved to* the nation more money than would have met 
all the private loss incident to the measure. But it has 



SPEECH TO THE MARYLANDERS. 439 

come at last, and I sincerely hope its friends may fully 
realize all their anticipations of good from it, and that 
its opponents may by its effect be agreeably and profit- 
ably disappointed. 

A word upon another subject. Something was said 
by the Secretary of State, in his recent speech at Auburn, 
which has been construed by some into a threat that if 
I should be beaten at the election, I will, between then 
and the end of my constitutional term, do what I may 
be able to ruin the Government. Others regard the fact 
that the Chicago Convention adjourned, not sine die, but 
to meet again if called to do so by a particular individual, 
as the intimation of a purpose that if their nominee shall 
be elected he will at once seize control of the Govern- 
ment. 

I hope the good people will permit themselves to suffer 
no uneasiness on either point. I am struggling to main- 
tain the Government; not to overthrow it. I am strug- 
gling especially to prevent others from overthrowing it, 
and I therefore say, that if I shall live, I shall remain 
President until the 4th of next March, and that whoever 
shall be constitutionally elected thereto in November, 
shall be duly installed as President on the 4th of March, 
and that in the meantime I shall do my utmost, that 
"whoever is to hold the helm for the next voyage shall 
start with the best possible chance to save the ship. 
This is due to the people, both on principle and under 
the Constitution. Their will, constitutionally expressed, 
is the ultimate law for all. 

If they should deliberately resolve to have immediate 
peace, even at the loss of their country and their liberties. 



440 LINCOLN S SPEECHES COMPLETE. 

I know not the power nor the right to resist them. It is 
their own business, and they must do as they please with 
their own. I beheve, however, they are still resolved to 
preserve their country and liberty, and in this, in office 
or out of it, I am resolved to stand by them. 

I may add that in this purpose, to save the country 
and its liberties, no classes of people seem so nearly 
unanimous as the soldiers in the field and the seamen 
afloat. Do they not have the hardest of it.? Who should 
quail while they do not.? 

God bless the soldiers and seamen, with all their brave 
commanders. 



It is now known that the communication was kept up 
between the rebel cabal in Canada and the men at Rich- 
mond, in whose "confidential employment" they were, 
by means of special messengers passing through the 
States. Directly after the October elections, a dispatch 
in cipher, which has since come into the possession of 
the Government, was sent from Canada to headquarters, 
found to contain the following language, under date of 
October 13th, 1864: 

We again urge our gaining immediate advantage. 
Strain every nerve for victory. We now look upon the 
re-election of Lincoln as certain, and we need to whip 
the hirelings to prevent it. Besides, with Lincoln re- 
elected, and his armies victorious, we need not hope even 
for recognition, much less the help mentioned in our last. 
Holcombe will explain this. Our friend shall be im- 
mediately set to work as you direct. 



SPEECH ON THE NIGHT OF THE PRESIDEN- 
TIAL ELECTION. 

(The feeling which was uppermost in the President's 
heart at the result of the election was joy over its effects 
upon the cause. He expressed this sentiment in some 
remarks which he made, when serenad*ed by a club of 
Pennsylvanians, at a late hour on the night of the elec- 
tion. His speech was a follows: — 

Friends and Fellow-Citizens: — Even before I had been 
informed by you that this compliment was paid to me by 
loyal citizens of Pennsylvania, friendly to me, I had in- 
ferred that you were that portion of my countrymen who 
think that the best interests of the nation are to be sub- 
served by the support of the present Administration. I 
do not pretend to say that you who think so embrace all 
the patriotism and loyalty of the country. But I do be- 
lieve, and I trust without personal interest, that the wel- 
fare of the country does require that such support and 
indorsement be given. I earnestly believe that the con- 
sequence of this day's work, if it be as you assure me, 
and as now seems probable, will be to the lasting advan- 
tage, if not to the very salvation of the country. I can- 
not at this hour say what has been the result of the elec- 
tion; but whatever it may have been, I have no desire to 
modify this opinion, that all who have labored to-day in 
behalf of the Union organizations have wrought for the 
best interests of their country and the world, not only for 
the present, but for all future ages. I am thankful to 
God for this approval of the people. But, while deeply 

[441] 



442 Lincoln's speeches complete. 

grateful for this remark of their confidence in me, if I 
know my heart, my gratitude is free from any taint of 
personal triumph. I do not impugn the motives of any 
one opposed to me. It is no pleasure to me to triumph 
over any one, but I give thanks to the Almighty for this 
evidence of the people's resolution to stand by free gov- 
ernment and the rights of humanity. 



LINCOLN'S FIRST SPEECH AFTER HIS SECOND 
ELECTION. 

(Delivered in response to a Serenade at the White House, Nov. lo 1864. 

Friends and Fellow-Citizens: — It has long been a 
grave question whether any government not too strong 
for the liberties of its people can be strong enough to 
maintain its own existence in great emergencies. On this 
point the present Rebellion brought our Republic to a 
severe test; and a Presidential election, occurring in reg- 
ular course during the RebeUion, added not a little to the 
strain. 

If the loyal people united were put to the utmost of 
their strength by the rebellion, must they not fall when 
divided and partially paralyzed by a political war among 
themselves.? 

But the election was a necessity. We can not have 
free government without elections; and if the rebellion 
could force us to forego or postpone a national election, it 
might fairly claim to have already conquered and ruined 
us. The strife of the election is but human nature prac- 
tically applied to the facts of the case. What has oc- 
curred in this case, must ever recur in similar cases. 



SECOND ELECTION. 443 

Human nature will not change. In any future great na- 
tional trial, compared with the men of this, we shall have 
as weaK and as strong, as silly and as wise, as bad and 

as good. 

Let us, therefore, study the incidents of this, as phil- 
osophy to learn wisdom from, and none of them as wrongs 

to be revenged. . 

But the election, along with its incidental and undesir- 
able strife, has done good too. It has demonstrated that 
a people's government can sustain a national elec- 
tion in the midst of a great civil war. [Enthusiastic 
cheers.] Until now, it has not been known to the world 
that this was a possibility. It shows also, how sound 
and how strong we still are. It shows that, even among 
candidates of the same party, he who is most devoted to 
the Union, and most opposed to treason, can receive 
most of the people's votes, [Long-continued applause.] 
It shows, also, to the extent yet known, that we have 
more men now than we had when the war began. Gold 
is good in its place, but living, brave, patriotic men, are 
better than gold. [Applause.] 

But the rebellion continues; and now that the election 
is over, may not all, having a common interest, re-unite 
in a common effort to save our common country.? [Cries 
of ''Yes," ''Good."] For my own part, I have striven, 
and will strive, to avoid placing any obstacle in the way. 
So long as I have been here, I have not willingly planted 
a thorn in any man's bosom. 

While I am deeply sensible to the high compliment of 
a re-election, and duly grateful, as I trust, to Almighty 
God, for having directed my countrymen to a right con- 



444 LINCOLN S SPEETCHES COMPLETE. 

elusion, as I think, for their own good, it adds nothing 
to my satisfaction that any other man may be dissa- 
pointed or pained by the result. [Applause.] 

May I ask those who have not differed with me to join 
with me in the same spirit toward those who have.? 

And now, let me close by asking three hearty cheers 
for our brave soldiers and seamen, and their gallant and 
skillful commanders. 



The cheers were given with hearty good will in re- 
sponse to the President's call. A venerable Democrat in 
the crowd remarked, with feeling: ''God is good to us. 
He has again given us as a ruler, that sublime specimen 
of His noblest work, an honest man." 



GEN. SHERMAN'S MARCH TO THE SEA. 

(Delivered in Response to a Serenade in Washington, Dec. 6, 1864,) 

Friends and Fellow-Citizens: — I believe I shall 
never be old enough to speak without embarrassment 
when I have nothing to talk about. I have no good news 
to tell you. We have talked of elections until there is 
nothing more to say about them. The most interesting 
news we have is from Sherman. We all know where he 
went in at, but I can't tell where he will come out at. 
I will now close by proposing three cheers for General 
Sherman and his Army. 



SWEDEN AND NORWAY. 

(A cordial speech of Baron de Wetterstedt, the min- 
ister representing the kingdom of Sweden and Norway, 
on the occasion of the elevation of his mission to a higher 
grade by his Soveriegn, and his official presentation on the 
20th of January, to the President, drew from Mr. Lin- 
coln the following deservedly friendly address:) 

Barron de Wetterstedt: — My memory does not re- 
call an instance of disagreement between Sweden and the 
United States. Your predecessor was most agreeable in 
his intercourse with this Government, and I greet you 
with the same good feeling which was entertained for 
him while he resided with us. The consideratien which 
your Government has manifested by raising the rank of 
its mission here, is acknowledged with sincere satisfac- 
tion. You may be assured that on my part every occa- 
sion will be improved to exhibit the sincere desire which 
this Government entertains for the prosperity and wel- 
fare of the Government and Kingdom of Sweden and 
Norway. 

A VASE OF LEAVES FROM GETTYSBURG. 

(Delivered at Washington, Jan. 25, 1865.) 

On the 25th of January, a delegation of ladies and 
gentlemen from Philadelphia, headed by the Rev. Dr. 
Suddards, waited on the President, to present him with a 
vase of leaves, gathered by the lady donors, on the battle- 
field of Gettysburg. Mr. Lincoln replied to the presen- 
tation as follows: — 

Reverend Sir and Ladies and Gentlemen: — I accept, 
with emotions of profoundest gratitude, the beautiful 

L445] 



44^ Lincoln's speeches complete. 

gift you have been pleased to present to me. You will, 
of course, expect that I acknowledge it. So much has 
been said about Gettysburg, and so well said, that for 
me to attempt to say more may, perhaps, only serve to 
weaken the force of that which has already been said. 
A most graceful and elegant tribute was paid to the 
patriotism and self-denying labors of the American ladies, 
on the occasion of the consecration of the National Cem- 
etery at Gettysburg, by our illustrous friend, Edward 
Everett, now, alas! departed from earth. His life was a 
truly great one, and I think, the greatest part of it was 
that which crowned its closing years. I wish you to 
read, if you have not already done so, the glowing, and 
eloquent, and truthful words which he then spoke of the 
women of America. Truly, the services they have ren- 
dered to the defenders of our country in this perilous 
time, and are yet rendering, can never be estimated as 
they ought to be. For your kind wishes to me, person- 
ally, I beg leave to render you, likewise, my sincerest 
thanks. I assure you they are reciprocated. And now, 
gentlemen and ladies, may God bless you all. 



X 



LINCOLN'S SECOND INAUGURAL ADDRESS. 

(Delivered, March 4, 1865, at Washington.) 

Mr. Lincoln was re-inaugurated into the Presiden- 
tial office on the fourth of March. An immense crowd 
was in attendance — a crowd of affectionate friends, not 
doubtful of the President, and not doubtful of one an- 
other and the future, as at the first inauguration. Chief 
Justice Chase administered the oath of office; and then 
Mr. Lincoln read his inaugural address concerning which 
it has been well said that it was a paper whose Christian 
sentiments and whose reverent and pious spirit has no 
parallel among the state papers of the American Presi- 
dents. It showed the President still untouched by re- 
sentment, still brotherly in his feelings toward the enemies 
of the government, and still profoundly conscious of the 
overruling power of Providence in national affairs. The 
address was as follows: 

WITH MALICE TOWARD NONE, WITH CHARITY FOR ALL. 

Fellow- Countrymen: — At this second appearing to 
take the oath of the Presidential office, there is less oc- 
casion for an extended address than there was at the 
first. Then a statement somewhat in detail of a course 
to be pursued seemed very, fitting and proper. Now, at 
the expiration of four years, during which public declara- 
tions have been constantly called forth on every point 
and phase of the great contest which still absorbs the 
attention and engrosses the energies of the nation, little 
that is new could be presented. 

*'The progress of our arms, upon which all else chiefly 
[447] 



448 Lincoln's speeches complete. 

depends, is as well known to the public as to myself; and 
it is, I trust, reasonably satisfactory and encouraging to 
all. With high hope for the future, no prediction in re- 
gard to it is ventured. 

"On the occasion corresponding to this four years ago, 
all thoughts were anxiously directed to an impending 
civil war. All dreaded it; all sought to avoid it. While 
the inaugural address was being delivered from this place, 
devoted altogether to saving the Union without war, in- 
surgent agents were in the city seeking to destroy it with- 
out war — seeking to dissolve the Union and divide the 
effects by negotiation. Both parties deprecated war; 
but one of them would make war rather than let the na- 
tion survive, and the other would accept war rather than 
let it perish; and the war came. 

'One eighth of the whole population were colored slaves, 
not distributed generally over the Union, but localized in 
the southern part of it. These slaves constituted a pecu- 
liar and powerful interest. All knew that this interest 
was somehow the cause of the war. To strengthen, per- 
petuate and extend this interest, was the object for which 
the insurgents would rend the Union even by war, while 
the government claimed no right to do more than to re-- 
strict the territorial enlargement of it. 

"Neither party expected for the war the magnitude or 
the duration which it has already attained. Neither an- 
ticipated that the cause of the conflict might cease with, 
or even before, the conflict itself should cease. Each 
looked for an easier triumph, and a result less funda- 
mental and astounding. 

"Both read the same Bible and pray to the same God, 



Lincoln's second inaugural address. 449 

and each invokes his aid against the other. It may seem 
strange that any men should dare to ask a just God's 
assistance in wringing their bread from the sweat of other 
men's faces. ; but let us judge not, that we be not judged. 
The prayers of both could not be answered. That of 
neither has been answered fully. The Almighty has 
his own purposes. 'Woe unto the world because of of- 
fense, for it must needs be that offenses come; but woe 
to that man by whom the offense cometh.' If we shall 
suppose that American slavery is one of these offenses, 
which in the providence of God must needs come, but 
which having continued through his appointed time, he 
now wills to remove, and that he gives to both North and 
South this terrible war as the woe due to those by whom 
the offense came, shall we discern therein any departure 
from those divine attributes which the believers in a living 
God always ascribe to him. 

Fondly do we hope, fervently do we pray, that this 
mighty scourge of war may soon pass away. Yet, if God 
wills that it continue until all the wealth piled by the 
bondsman's two hundred and fifty years of unrequited 
toil shall be sunk, and until every drop of blood drawn 
with the lash shall be paid with another drawn with the 
sword; as was said three thousand years ago, so still it 
must be said, 'The judgements of the Lord are true and 
righteous altogether.' 

"With malice toward none, with charity for all, with 
firmness in the right, as God gives us to see the right, 
let us strive on to fmish the work we are in, to bind up 
the nation's wounds, to care for him who shall have born 
the battle and for his widow and orphans, to do all which 



450 LINCOLN S SPEECHES COMPLETE, 

may achieve and cherish a just and a lasting peace among 
ourselves and with all nations." 



SPEECH TO THE 140th INDIANA REGIMENT. 

(Delivered at Washington, March 17, 1865,) 

(Governor Morton had made a brief speech, in which 
he congratulated his auditors on the speedy approaching 
end of the rebellion, and concluded by introducing 
President Lincoln, whose purity and patriotism were 
confessed, he said, by all, even among the most violent 
of his opponents. His Administration would be recog- 
nized as the most important epoch of histor}^ It had 
struck the death-blow to slavery, and clothed the Re- 
public with a power it never before possessed. If he 
had done nothing more than put his name to the Emanci- 
pation Proclamation, that act alone would have made 
his name immortal.) 

The President addressed the assembly as follows: — 
Fellow-Citizens: — It will be but a very few words 
that I shall undertake to say. I was born in Kentucky, 
raised in Indiana, and lived in Illinois; and now I am here, 
where it is my business to care equally for the good 
people of all the States. I am glad to see an Indiana 
regiment on this day able to present the captured flag to 
the Governor of Indiana. I am not disposed, in 
saying this, to make a distinction between the States, 
for all have done equally well. 

There are but few views or aspects of this great war 
upon which I have not said or written something where- 
by my own opinions might be known. But there is one 



TO THE 140 INDIANA REGIMENT. 45 1 

— the recent attempt of our erring brethern, as they are 
sometimes called, to employ the negro to fight for them. 
I have never written nor made a speech on that subject, 
because that was their business, not mine, and if I had 
a wish upon the subject, I had not the power to intro- 
duce it, or make it effective. The great question with 
them was whether the negro, being put into the army, 
will fight for them. I do not know, and therefore can 
not decide. They ought to know better than, me. 

I have in my lifetime heard many arguments why the 
negroes ought to be slaves; but if they fight for those 
who would keep them in slavery, it will be a better 
argument than any I have yet heard. He who will fight 
for that, ought to be a slave. They have concluded, at 
last to take one out of four of the slaves and put them 
in the army, and that one out of the four who will fight 
to keep the others in slavery, ought to be a slave himself,_ 
unless he is killed in a fight. While I have often said 
that all men ought to be free, yet would I allow those 
colored persons to be slaves who want to be, and next 
to them those white people who argue in favor of mak- 
ing other people slaves. I am in favor of giving an ap- 
pointment to such white men to try it on for these slaves. 
I will say one thing in regard to the negroes being employ- 
ed to fight for them. I do know he cannot fight and stay 
at home and make bread too. And as one is about as 
important as the other to them, I don't care which they 
do. I am rather in favor of having them try them as sol- 
diers. They lack one vote of doing that, and I wish 
I could send my vote over the river so that I might cast 
it in favor of allowing the negro to fight. But they can 



452 LINCOLN S SPEECHES COMPLETE. 

not fight and work both. We must now see the bottom 
of the enemy's resources. They will stand out as long 
as they can, and if the negro will fight for them they 
must allow him to fight. They have drawn upon their 
last branch of resources, and we can now see the 
bottom. I am glad to see the end so near at hand. I 
have said now more than I intended, and will therefore 
bid you good-bye. 



CAPTURE OF THE TUNE DIXIE. 

(Delivered in Response to a Seranade at the White House, April lo, 1865) 

My Friends: — I am greatly rejoiced that an occasion 
has occurred so pleasurable that the people can't restrain 
themselves. I suppose that arrangements are being 
made for some sort of formal demonstration, perhaps 
this evening or to morrow night. If there should be 
such a demonstration I, of course, shall have to respond 
to it, and I shall have nothing to say if I dribble it out 
before. I see you have a band. I propose now closing 
up by requesting you to play a certain air, or tune. I 
have always thought "Dixie"' one of the best tunes I 
ever heard. I have heard that our adversaries over the 
way have attempted to appropriate it as a national air. 
I insisted yesterday that we had fairly captured it. I 
presented the question to the Attorney General, and he 
gave his opinion that it is our lawful prize. I ask the 
band to give us a good turn upon it. 



LINCOLN DOES NOT WISH TO 
MAKE ANY MISTAKES. 

(Delivered at the White House on the evening of April lo, 1865.) 

My Friends:— I am informed that you have assembled 
here this afternoon under the impression that I had 
made an appointment to speak at this time. This is a 
mistake. I have no such appointment. More or less 
persons have been gathered here at different times during 
the day, and in the exuberance of their feelings, and for 
all of which they are justified, calling upon me to say 
something, and I have, from time to time, been sending 
out what I supposed was proper to disperse them for the 

present. , . . t j • 

I said to a larger audience this morning which I desire 
now to repeat. It is this; That I supposed in conse- 
quence of the glorious news we have received lately, 
there is to be some general demonstration, either on this 
or to morrow evening, when I will be expected, I pre- 
sume to say something. Just here, I will remark, that I 
would much prefer having this demonstration take place 
to morrow evening, as I would then be much better pre- 
pared to say what I have to say than I am now or can 
be this evening. 

I therefore say to you that I shall be quite willing, and 
I hope ready, to say something then; whereas just now I 
an not ready to say anything that one in my position 
ought to say. everything I say, you know, goes into 
print If I make a mistake it doesn't mearly affect me 

(453) 



454 Lincoln's speeches complete. 

or you, but the country.- I therefore ought at least try 
not to make mistakes, 

If then a demonstration be made to morrow evening, 
and it is agreeable, I will endeavor to say something, 
and not make a mistake, without at least trying to 
avoid it. Thanking you for the compliment of this call, 
I bid you good evening. 



PRESIDENT LINCOLN'S LAST SPEECH. 

A CAREFULLY WORDED, VERY WISE, AND MEMORABLE PRO- 
DUCTION. 

(Delivered on Tuesday Evening, April ii, 1865, in Response to a Serenade 
at the White House. This was the address promised above.) 

Fellow-Citizens: — We meet this evening not in sor- 
row, but in gladness of heart. The evacuation of Peters- 
burg and Richmond, and the surrender of the principal 
insurgent army, give hope of a righteous and speedy 
peace whose joyous expression cannot be restrained. In 
the midst of this, however. He from whom all blessings 
flow must not be forgotten. A call for a national thanks- 
giving is being prepared, and will be duly promulgated. 
Nor must those whose harder part give us the cause of 
rejoicing be overlooked. Their honors must not be par- 
celed out with others. I myself was near the front, and 
had the high pleasure of transmitting much of the good 
news to you; but no part of the honor, for plan or execu- 
tion, is mine. To Gen. Grant, his skillful officers and 
brave men, all belongs. The gallant navy stood ready, 
but was not in reach to take active part. 
^ By these recent successes, the re-inauguration of the 



Lincoln's last speech. 455 

national authority, reconstruction, which has had a large 
share of thought from the first, is pressed much more 
closely upon our attention. It is fraught with great diffi- 
culty. Unlike the case of a war between independent 
nations, there is no authorized organs for us to treat 
with. No one man has authority to give up the rebellion 
for any other man. We simply must begin with and 
mold from disorganized and discordant elements. Nor is 
it a small additional embarrassment that we, the loyal 
people, differ among ourselves as to the mode, manner 
and means of reconstruction. 

As a general rule, I abstain from reading the reports 
of attacks upon myself, wishing not to be provoked by 
that to which I cannot properly offer an answer. In 
spite of this precaution, however, it comes to my know- 
ledge that I am much censured from some supposed 
agency in setting up and seeking to sustain the new State 
Government of Louisiana. In this I have done just so 
much as, and no more than, the public knows. In the 
annual message of December, 1863, and accompanying 
proclamation, I presented a plan of reconstruction 
(as the phrase goes,) which I promised, if adopted by any 
State, should be acceptable to, and sustained by, the 
Executive Government of the nation. I distinctly stated 
that this was not the only plan which might possibly be 
acceptable; and I also distinctly protested that the Exe- 
cutive claimed no right to say when or whether members 
should be admitted to seats in Congress from such States, 
This plan was, in advance, submitted to the then Cabinet, 
and distinctly approved by every member of it. One of 
them suggested that I should then, and in that connec- 



45^ Lincoln's speeches complete. 

tion, apply the Emancipation Proclamation to the 
theretofore excepted parts of Virginia and Louisiana: that 
I should drop the suggestion about apprenticeship tor 
freed people, and that I should omit the protest against 
my own power, in regard to the admission of members of 
Congress, but even he approved every part and parcel of 
the plan which has since been employed or touched by 
the actions of Louisiana. 

The new Constitution of Louisiana, declaring emanci- 
pation for the whole State, practically applies the pro- 
clamation to the part previously excepted. It does not 
adopt apprenticeship- for freed people, and it is silent, as 
it could not well be otherwise, about the admission of 
members to Congress. So that, as it applies to Louis- 
iana, every member of the Cabinet fully approved the 
plan. The message went to Congress, and I received 
many commendations of the plan, written and verbal; 
and not a single objection to it, from any professed eman- 
cipationist, came to my knowledge, until after the news 
reached Washington that the people of Louisiana had be- 
gun to move in accordance with it. From about July, 
1862, I had corresponded with different persons, supposed 
to be interested, seeking a reconstruction of a State 
Government for Louisiana. When the message of 1863, 
with the plan before mentioned, reached New Orleans, 
Gen. Banks wrote me he was confident that the people, 
with his military co-operation, would reconstruct sub- 
stantially on that plan. I wrote him, and some of them, 
to try it. They tried it, and the result is known. Such 
only has been my agency in getting up the Louisiana 
government. As to sustaining it, my promise is out, as 



Lincoln's last speech. 457 

before stated. But, as bad promises are better broken 
than kept, I shall treat this as a bad promise, and break 
it, whenever I shall be convinced that keeping it is ad- 
verse to the public interest. But I have not yet been so 
convinced. 

I have been shown a letter on this subject, supposed 
to be an able one, in which the writer expresses regret 
that my mind has not seemed to be definitely fixed on the 
question whether the seceded States, so-called, are in 
the Union or out of it. It would, perhaps, add astonish- 
ment to his regret were he to learn that, since T have 
found professed Union men endeavoring to make that 
question, I have purposely forborne any public expression 
upon it. As appears to me, that question has not been, 
nor yet is, a practically material one, and that any dis- 
cussion of it,'while it thus remains practically immaterial, 
could have no effect other than the mischievous one of 
dividing our friends. As yet, whatever it may hereafter 
become, that question is bad, as the basis of a contro- 
versy, and good for nothing at all — a merely pernicious 
abstraction. We all agree that the seceded States, so- 
called, are out of their proper practical relation with the 
Union, and that the sole object of the Government, 
civil and military, in regard to those States, is to again 
get them into their proper practical relation. I believe 
it is not only possible, but in fact easier to do this without 
deciding, or even considering, whether these States have 
ever been out of the Union, than with it. Finding 
themselves safely at home, it would be utterly immaterial 
whether they had ever been abroad. Let us all join in 
doing the acts necessary to restoring the proper practical 



458 Lincoln's speeches complete. 

relations between these States and the Union, and each 
forever after innocently indulge his own opinion whether, 
in doing the acts, he brought the States from without in- 
to the Union, or only gave them proper assistance they 
never having been out of it. 

The amount of constituency, so to speak, on which the 
new Louisiana government rests, would be more satis- 
factory to all if it contained fifty, thirty, or even twenty 
thousand, instead of only about twelve thousand, as it 
really does. It is also unsatisfactory to some that the 
election franchise is not given to the colored man. I 
would myself prefer that it were now conferred on the 
very intelligent, and those who serve our cause as 
soldiers. Still the question is not whether the Lou- 
isiana government, as it stands, is quite all that is des- 
irable. The question is ''Will it be wiser, ♦to take it as 
it is, and help to improve it, or to reject and disperse it.^" 

''Can Louisiana be brought into proper practical re- 
lation with the Union sooner by sustaining or by discard- 
ing the new State government.^" 

Some twelve thousand voters, in the heretofore slave 
State of Louisiana, have sworn allegiance to the Union, 
assumed to be the rightful political power of the State, 
held elections, organized a State government, adopted a 
free State constitution, giving the benefit of public 
schools equally to black and white, and empowering the 
Legislature to confer elective franchise upon the colored 
man. The Legislature has already voted to ratify the 
constitutional amendment recently passed by Congress, 
abolishing slavery through the nation, These twelve 
thousand persons are thus fully committed to the Uuion, 



LINCOLN'S LAST SPEECH. . 459 

and to perpetual freedom in the States— committed to 
the very things and nearly all the things the nation wants 
—and they ask the nation's recognition and its assistance 
to make good that committal. Now, if we reject and 
spurn them, we do our utmost to disorganize and disperse 
them. We, in effect, say to the white men, ''You are 
worthless, or worse, we will neither help you, nor be 
helped by you." To the blacks we say, ''This cup of 
Liberty which these, your old masters, hold to your lips, 
we will dash from you, and leave you to the chances of 
gathering the spilled and scattered contents in some 
vague and undefined when, where and how." If this 
course, discouraging and paralyzing both white and 
black, has any tendency to bring Louisiana into proper 
practical relations with the Union, I have, so far, been 
unable to perceive it. If on the contrary, we recognize 
and sustain the new government of Louisiana, the con- 
verse of all this is made true. 

We encourage the hearts and nerve the arms of the 
twelve thousand to adhere to their work, and argue for 
it, and proselyte for it, and fight for it, and feed it, and 
grow it, and ripen it to a complete success. The colored 
man, too, seeing all united for him, is inspired with vigil- 
ance, and energy, and daring the same end. Grant that 
he desires elective franchise, will he not attain it sooner 
by saving the already advanced step towards it, than by 
running backward over them.? Concede that the new 
government of Louisiana is only to what it should be as 
the egg is to the fowl, we shall sooner have the fowl by 
hatching the egg than by smashing it. [Laughter.] 
Again, if we reject Louisiana, we also reject one vote 



460 Lincoln's speeches complete. 

in favor of the proposed amendment to the Nationa 
Constitution. To meet this proposition, it has been 
argued that no more than three-fourths of those States, 
which have not attempted secession, are necessary to 
vaHdly ratify the amendment. I do not commit mysell 
against this, further than to say that such a ratification 
would be questionable, and sure to be persistently question- 
ed, while ratification by three-fourths of all the States 
would be unquestioned and unquestionable. 

I repeat the question. "Can Louisiana be brought 
into proper practical relation with the Union sooner by 
sustaining or by discarding her new State government.'*" 
What has been said of Louisiana will apply generally to 
other States. And yet so great peculiarities pertain to 
each state, and such important and sudden changes occur 
in the same State, and, withal, so new and unprecedent- 
ed is the whole case, that no exclusive and inflexible 
plan can safely be prescribed as to details and collaterals. 
Such exclusive and inflexible plan would surely become 
a new entanglement. Important principles may, and 
must, be inflexible. 

In the present situation, as the phrase goes, it may 
be my duty to make some new announcement to the 
people of the South. I am considering, and shall not 
fail to act, when satisfied that action will be proper. 



REMINISCENCES OF LINCOLN. 

AN INTERESTING CHAPTER. 

Secretary Usher, who was an old friend of Mr. Lincoln, 
and a member of his Cabinet at Washington, gives the 
following interesting reminiscences, characteristics, etc. , 
of this great man: 

LINCOLN AS A LAWYER. 

Lincoln belonged to the reasoning class of men. He 
dealt with his own mind and turned things over there, 
seeking the truth until he estabhshed it and it became a 
conviction. As a lawyer, he never claimed everything 
for his client. He stated something of both sides of the 
case. I have known him to say: ''Now, I don't think 
my client is entitled to the whole of what he claims. In 
this point or that point he may have been in error. He 
must rebate something of his claim." He was also very 
careful about giving personal offense, and if he had some- 
thing severe to say, he would turn to his opponent or to 
the person about to be referred to and say: "I don't like 
tousethis language," or 'I am sorry that I have to be 
hard on that gentleman'; and, therefore, what he did say 
was thrice as effective, and very seldom wounded the 
person attacked. Throughout Mr. Lincoln's life that 
kind of wisdom attending him, and made him the great 
and skillful politician he was in handling people. He had 
a smooth, manly, pleasing voice, and when arguing in 
court, that voice attracted the jury, and did not tire them, 
so that they followed his argument throughout. He was 

(461) 



462 Lincoln's speeches complete. 

not a graceful man. He would lean on the back of a 
chair, or put the chair behind him, or stand hipshotten, or 
with arms akimbo, but yet there was a pleasure in listen- 
ing to him, because he seemed so unmercenary. 
Lincoln's ambition. 

I do not think Lincoln was ambitious at all. It seems 
to me that his object in life was no greater than to make 
a living for his family. The dream of avarice never 
crossed him: He took no initial steps to reach the Pres- 
idency or the Senate, and was rather pushed forward, 
than a volunteer: I can't recall in those days when he 
attended court that he ever spoke about himself or took 
any satisfaction in victory over an adversary, or repeated 
any good thing he had done or said. As a partisan he 
always reasoned for the good of the party, and not con- 
cerning his own advancement. Consequently, when 
the people had made up their minds that there was talent 
in him, of a remarkable kind, they came to his assistance 
with a spontaneity and vehemence that was electrical. 
He reaped the great reward of unselfishness as few men 
have ever done. # 

Lincoln's nature. 

I can recall a certain incident that illustrates Lincoln's 
nature. Somewhere near the town of Paris there was a 
Whig population, with strong prejudices in favor of pro- 
tecting slavery. These people liked Lincoln, and be- 
lieved in him, and saw with pain that he was becoming 
a Radical. They came to him during court and said: 
'We want you to come up and talk to us. We don't 
want to quarrel with you, and will hear all you have to 



REMINISCENCES OF LINCOLN. 463 

say; but something must be wrong when as fair a man as 
you is drifting over to Abolitionism. 'Very well,' said Mr. 
Lincoln, *I will come upon such a day and give you my 
views.' Lincoln went on that day, and made a temper- 
ate, and sweet-toothed, cordial address on the issues of 
the day. He said: 'My friends, I perceive you will not 
agree with me, but that ought to make no difference in 
our relations with each other. You hear me, as you al- 
ways have, with kindness, and I shall respect your views, 
as I hope you will mine.' They heard Lincoln through, 
and dismissed him with respect, but did not agree with 
him. There was another person up there by the name 
of Stephens, who was lame, and he undertook to empha- 
size Lincoln's views, and put his foot in it. A certain 
doctor, of Southern origin, interrupted Stevens, and 
said he would thrash him. Stevens turned around and 
replied, 'Well, doctor, you can thrash me, or do anything 
of a violent sort to me, if you don't give any of your pills.' 
Lincoln used to tell this story with a good deal of delight. 
You see, in those days the settlers in Illinois would live 
in the edges of the timber, which grew in spots and 
patches, and left naked prairie between the groves. It 
was at such a place that Lincoln made that speech on 
the slavery question. 

LINCOLN AND THE LADIES. 

He was almost wholly possessed with a sense of duty 
and responsibility. He was not shy in the company of 
ladies, but I don't think he thought anything about them 
until they came before him as guests and callers. Some 
of his wife's people .were southerners, and public attacks 



464 Lincoln's speeches complete. 

were made on them, as, for instance, it is said that one 
of them had gone through the hnes with a pass from Mr. 
Lincoln, and taken a quantity of medicine, etc. I re- 
member that an old partner in law of mine brought his 
wife to Washington, and they wanted to see Mr. Lincoln. 
There was a great crowd waiting around his door, but the 
door-keeper admitted us at once, and Mr. Lincoln came 
forward with both hands extended and shook the lady's 
hand, rather divining that she was the wife of my part- 
ner. He told a little anecdote or two, and said some 
quaint things, and when the lady came out she said to me: 
"Why I don't think that he is an ugly man at all." He 
was almost a father to his wife. He seemed to be pos- 
sessed of the notion that she was under his protection, 
and that he must look out for her like a wilful child. 

Lincoln's temper. 

I remember one event showing Lincoln's temper. He 
had issued a proclamation stating that when one-tenth of 
the voters of a Congressional district, or a part of a State, 
resumed their position in the Union, and elected a mem- 
ber of Congress, they should be recognized as much as 
the whole constituency. Chase remarked: 'Instead of 
saying voters, I suggest that you put in citizens;' I saw 
in a minute what Chase was driving at. This question 
had arisen as to who were citizens, and Mr. Bates, the 
Attorney-General, had pronounced negroes to be citizens. 
The law of the administration, therefore, was, that ne- 
groes were included in citizenship. As I walked away 
from the Cabinet that day Chase was at my side, and he 
said: Mr. Usher, we must stick to it that citizens, and 



REMINISCENCE OF LINCOLN. 465 

not voters, be named in that proclamation.' I turned 
about when we had got to the Treasury, and walked back 
on the plank which at that time led to the White House, 
and I told Lincoln that Chase was very pertinacious 
about the word citizens instead of voters. 'Yes' said 
Lincoln, 'Chase thinks that the negroes, as citizens, will 
all vote to make him President.' 

Lincoln's sadness. 
Lincoln was, in his fixed quality, a man of sadness. If 
he were looking out of a window when alone, and you 
happened to be passing by and caught his eye, you would 
generally see in it an expression of distress. 

He was one of the greatest men who ever lived. It has 
now been many years since I was in his Cabinet, and 
some of the things that happened there have been forgot- 
ten, and the whole of it is rather dreamy. But Lincoln's 
extraordinary personality is still one of the most distinct 
things to my memory. He was as wise as a serpent. He 
had the skill of the greatest statesman in the world. 
Everything he handled came to success. Nobody took 
up his work and brought it to the same perfection. 
Lincoln's kindness. 
Lincoln had more patience than anybody around him. 
Sometimes, when we were considering a thing of import- 
ance in the Cabinet, his little son would push open the. 
door and come in with a drum and beat it up and down^ 
the room, giving us all a certain amount of misery. Wx-. 
Lincoln, however, never ordered the boy to be take-n^out,, 
but would say: *My son, don't you think you eaa. make- 
a little less noise.?' That Thaddeus was ^ situbbom little.: 



466 LINCOLN S SPEECHES COMPLETE. * 

chap. We could not make up with him when he got 
offended. Robert was as well-behaved a young man as I 
have ever seen. He went to Hartford and graduated, 
and we entertained high respect for him. 

SEWARD AND LINCOLN. 

I think that Lincoln had a real fondness and admira^ 
tion for Seward. There was no suspicion or rivalry 
whatever between them. Seward supported Lincoln in 
every position or scruple that he had. My impression 
is, that those two men were as cordial and intimate as 
any two persons of such prominence could be. 

After Caleb Smith, of Indiana, was made a member of 
the Cabinet, he desired me to be his Assistant Secretary. 
Mr. Smith w^as nominated District Judge of the United 
States in the course of time, and then Mr. Lincoln pro- 
moted me at Smith's request. I was in the Cabinet 
somewhat more than two years, and a part of the time 
was under Mr. Johnson. That Cabinet was very ill-sort- 
ed. My predecessor. Judge Smith, was a kind man, but 
without much discrimination as to his followers. There 
hardly was ever such a thing as a regular Cabinet meeting 
in the sense of form. Under Johnson and under Grant, 
I have seen a table with chairs placed in regular order 
around it, as if for Cabinet council. Nothing of that kind 
ever occurred in Mr. Lincoln's Cabinet. Seward would 
come in and lie down on a settee. Stanton hardly ever 
stayed more than five or ten minutes. Sometime Sew- 
ard would tell the President the outline of some paper 
he was writing on State matter. Lincoln generally stood 
up and walked about. In fact, every member of that 



REMINISCENCE OF LINCOLN. 467 

Cabinet ran his own Department in his own way. I don't 
suppose that such a historic period was ever so simply 
operated from the center of powers. Lincoln trusted all 
his subordinates and they worked out their own perfor- 
mances. "I regard Seward," said Mr. Usher, "as on the 
whole the strong man of the Cabinet, the counsel of the 
President." 

HOW LINCOLN BECAME PRESIDENT. 

Mr. Lincoln became Tresident mainly on the score of 
his debate with Dcuglcs. He had never been in any 
great prominence as office-holder. His thorough-going 
devotion to his party brought him universal good-will, 
however, and he grew so harmoniously into the advocacy 
of Republican principles and opposition to Douglas 
notion of squatter sovereignty, that there was a general 
desire to see him come forward and debate with Douglas. 

I can tell you something interesting about the debate. 
Lincoln had no money. He was in no position to 
match a man of Douglas' financial resources. The peo- 
ple in Lincoln's following, however, put their hands in 
their pockets and subscribed for a band of music to ap- 
pear with him, and that band was procured in Indiana. 
They put the band on a wagon to send it by the roads 
from point to point of meeting. Douglas meantime 
came on to New York and borrowed $100,000. I think 
he got some of it from Ben Wood and Fernando Wood.. 
He then took a special train of cars and made a sort of 
triumphal tour of the State, designing to carry the 
Senatorship by storm. Lincoln said after the contest 
was over with a certain serious grimness, 'I reckon that 



468 Lincoln's speeches complete. 

the campaign has cost me fully $250.' It was generally 
understood in the west that the same campaign cost 
Douglas $ 1 00, 000 • 

Lincoln's speeches against Douglas were extemporane- 
ous, and he never revised them. Douglas did revise his 
remarks. Lincoln reasoned so closely and carefully on 
Douglas' false statements that he came out of the cam- 
paign covered with respect, and instantly the movement 
started to make him President. "I think it is due," said 
Mr. Usher, *to Mr. Seward's memory to say that his 
extreme views on the slavery question helped to beat him. 

CARELESS OF HIS LIFE. 

Lincoln was too careless. He would go out of his 
house at night and walk over to the War Department, 
where Stanton was receiving dispatches unattended. I 
said to him: "Lincoln, you have no business to expose 
yourself in this way. It is known that you go out at 
midnight and return here sometimes at two o'clock in the 
morning from the War Department. It would be very 
easy to kill you." The President replied that if anybody 
desired to assassinate him he did not suppose any 
amount of care would save him. 

Lincoln's plan of reconstruction. 

"Lincoln would have made," says Mr. Usher, "a: 
powerful white Republican, party in every Southern 
State. He had that in hifn which would have made 
the Southern people support him in preference to the 
radical Northern politicians. Lincoln would have said 
in private to their leaders, 'You will have to stand in 
with me and help me out; otherwise Sumner and 



REMINISGENCES OF LINCOLN. 469 

Stevens and those other fellows will beat us both. You 
go back home and start some schools yourselves for the 
negroes, and put them on the route to citizenship. Let 
it be your own work. Make some arrangement to give 
them some land ultimately out of the public domain in 
your States. In that way you will have them your 
friends politically, and your prosperity will not be em- 
barrassed.' Only Mr. Lincoln could have carried out 
this platform. His temperament, eminence and quality 
all adapted him for such a great part. 



THE ASSASSINATION 

OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN. 

It was on the evening of Friday, April 14, 1865, that 
President and Mrs. Lincoln, with Miss Mary Harris and 
Maj. Rathbun, of Albany, son-in-law of Senator Harris, 
visited Ford's Theatre, at Washington, for the purpose 
of witnessing **The American Cousin," which was running 
at the theatre. The fact that this distinguished party 
was to be present at the performance had been duly an- 
nounced in all the local papers, and the theatre was 
densely crowded. The Presidential party occupied a 
box on the second tier. The scene was a brilliant one, 
and all went merry with the audience and actors alike 
until the close of the third act, when the sharp report of 
a pistol was heard, and an instant afterward a man was 
seen to spring from the President's box to the stage, 
where, striking a tragic attitude and brandishing a long 
dagger in his right hand, he cried out, "Sic semper tyran- 
nis!" and then, amid the bewilderment of the audiQnc;e, 



4/0 LINCOLN'S SPEECHES COMPLETE. 

rushed through the opposite side of the stage and made 
his escape from the rear of the theatre. The screams of 
Mrs. Lincoln told the audience but too plainly that the 
President had been shot. 

All present rose to their feet, and the excitement was 
of the wildest possible description. A rush was made to 
the President's box, where, on a hasty examination being 
made, it was found he was shot through the head. The 
President was quickly removed to a private house oppo- 
site the theatre, where, on further examination, his wound 
was pronounced to be mortal. This tragic occurrence, 
of course, immediately put a stop to the performance, and 
the theatre was closed as quickly as possible. The assas- 
sin in his hurried flight, dropped his hat and a spur on 
the stage. The hat was identified as belonging to J. 
Wilkes Booth, a prominent actor, and the spur v/as re- 
cognized as one obtained by him at a stable on that day. 
One or two of the actors and members of the orchestra 
declared that the assassin was no other than Wilkes Booth, 
and the evidence almost momentarily accumulating fixed 
him beyond doubt as the author of the bloody tragedy. 
Almost before the audience had left the theatre it was 
known that the assasin, after he got out, made his escape 
on horseback. [But was afterwards shot.] 

The news of the hideous tragedy spread like wild-fire, 
and the greatest excitemen prevailed thoughout the city, 
dense throngs of people congregated in the locality of the 
house where President Lincoln was lying. While the 
general excitement was at its height, it became known 
that an attempt had been made to assassinate Mr. Sew- 
ard, Secretary of State. When it was known that Secre- 



THE ASSASSINATON. 4/1 

tary Seward was not dangerously wounded, the general 
anxiety was centered on President Lincoln, and while the 
scene in the streets was one of the wildest excitement and 
confusion, within the chamber where President Lincoln 
was lying all was sadness and stillness. Several members 
of the cabinet had hastened to his side. Medical and 
surgical aid were obtained, and everything was done to 
relieve the suffering President. It was soon ascertained, 
however, that it was impossible for him to survive, the 
only question being how long he would linger. All through 
the weary hours of the night and early morning the Pres- 
ident lay unconscious, as he had ever since his assassina- 
tion. He was watched by several faithful friends, in ad- 
dition to near relatives. At his bedside were the Secretary 
of War, Secretary of the Navy, Secretary of the Interior, 
Postmaster General, and the Attorney General, Senator 
Sumner, Gen, Farnsworth, Gen. Todd, cousin of Mrs. 
Lincoln; Maj. Hay, M. B. Field, Gen. Halleck, Maj. 
Gen. Meigs, the Rev. Dr. Gurley, Gen. Oglesby, of Ill- 
inois, arid Drs. E. N. Abbott, R. K. Stone, C. D. Hatch, 
Neal, Hall, and Lieberman. 

In the adjoining room were Mrs. Lincoln, her son, 
Capt, Robert Lincoln, Miss Harris, Rufus S. Andrews, 
and two lady friends of Mrs. Lincoln. Mrs. Lincoln was 
under great excitement and agony, exclaiming again and 
again: "Why did he not shoot me instead of my hus- 
band.''" She was constantly going back and forth to 
the bedside of the President, crying out in the greatest 
agony: *'How^ can it be so,:" The scene was heartrend- 
ing in the extreme, aud all were greatly overcome. The 
surgeons and members of the Cabinet, Senator Sumner, 



472 LINCOLN S SPEECHES COMPLETE. 

Capt. Robert Lincoln, Gen. Todd, Mr. Field, and Mr. 
Andrews were standing at his bedside when he died. A. 
twenty-two minutes past 7 a. m. on April 15, the looked 
for but dreaded end came, and as he drew his last breath 
the Rev. Dr. Gurley offered up a prayer for the deceased's 
heart-broken family and the mourning country. The 
President died without a struggle, passing silently and 
calmly away, having been in a state of utter unconscious- 
ness from the time he was shot till his death. All present 
in the silent death chamber felt the awful solemnity of the 
occasion, and the scene was heartrending and touching. 
Mrs. Lincoln, shortly after her husband's death, was 
driven, with her son Robert, to the White House, where, 
but the evening before, she left for the last time with her 
honored husband, who was never again to enter that home 
alive. 

THE EFFECT OF THE PRESIDENT'S DEATH. 

The news of the President's death fell like a pall over 
the city, and before long every house was draped in 
mourning. The grief felt was widespread, and the 
deepest gloom and sadness prevailed on all sides. The 
President's corpse was removed to the White House be- 
fore noon, and a dense crowd accompanied the remains. 
After an autopsy had been made on the corpse it was em- 
balmed and placed in a handsome mahogany coffin, on 
which was a silver plate bearing the inscription: 
ABRAHAM LINCOLN, 
Sixteenth President of the United States. 
Born February 12,1 809, 
Died April 15, 1865. 
In the evening City Councils, clergy, and others held 



THE ASSASSINATION. 473 

meetings to officially express regret at the President's 
death. 

Sunday, the i6th, was a solemn and mournful day in 
Washington, as also in every city in the States. The 
Churches were crowded, and not a sermon was preached 
but the tragic occurrence was touchingly alluded to. The 
interior of the White House all .day presented a scene of 
overwhelming sadness. The body of the Chief Magis- 
trate of the Nation was temporarily laid out in one of the 
upper rooms of the house. The body was dressed in 
the suit of plain black worn by him on the occasion of 
his last inauguration, while on his pillow and over the 
breast were scattered affectionate offerings in the shape 
of white flowers and green leaves. 

On Monday the body of the murdered President lay in 
state in the coffin, which was placed on a grand cata- 
falque erected in the East Room of the White House. 
The room was heavily draped in mourning and a guard 
of honor surrounded the coffin, The populace by thou- 
sands gathered at the White House and there viewed the 
body. All the streets leading to the White House were 
thronged with people from early morn till late at night 
wendmg their way to where rested the sarcophagus in 
which was confined the cold and motionless form of him 
who but a few days since had hold of the helm of the ship 
of State. The universality of the mourning was remark- 
able. Old and young, rich and poor, all sexes, grades 
and colors, united in paying their homage to the great 
and illustrious dead, and one of the most touching sights 
was that of the wounded soldiers from the hospitals, who 
came to have a long, last look at the face of the late 



474 Lincoln's speeches complete. 

President and honored and beloved Commander-in-Chief. 

On Wednesday morning a funeral service was held at 
the White House. The whole scene presented in the 
room was one of solemnity, and a single feeling appeared 
manifest among all, and that was grief. The services 
were conducted by the Rev. Dr. Hall, of the Episcopal 
Church, in the city, and the funeral oration was delivered 
by the Rev. Dr. Gurley, pastor of the Presbyterian 
Church in the city, which Mr. Lincoln and his family 
were in the habit of attending. At the close of these 
services the funeral cortege started for the Capitol. The 
beat of the funeral drum sounded upon the street, and the 
cortege marched with solemn tread and arms reversed. 
The procession consisted of a large military escort, in- 
cluding a body of dismounted officers of the army and 
navy and marine corps; Following these came the civic 
authorities, and after them the funeral car, drawn by six 
gray horses. A long line of sad, weeping relatives of the 
deceased followed in carriages. Next came President 
Johnson, accompanied by Mr. Preston King, of New 
York, with a strong calvary guard on either side. The 
rest of the procession consisted of the Cabinet and diplo- 
matic corps, Judges of the Supreme Court, and clerks of 
the Departments, and was closed by 1,500 well-dressed 
negroes of various organizations. The procession was one 
hour and a half passing a given point and was witnessed 
by at least 150,000 people. 

After the body had been placed in the Capitol, the 
Rev. Dr. Guriey read the burial service, at the close of 
which the outside procession slowly dispersed. The body 
of the late President lay in state in the Capitol all the 



THE ASSASSINATION. 475 

day and through the night, attended by guard a of honor 
and viewed by an immense number of citizens. 

Early on Friday morning, the 2ist, the body was 
carried to the depot of the BaUimore & Ohiy Railway, 
and the distinguished party that was to accompany the 
remains to Springfield, 111., left on their sad errand by 
the half-past 7 a. m. train. The rcute was as follows, 
and the arrangements were all carried out to perfection, 
there being no delays on the journey: From Washing- 
ton to Baltimore, Baltimore to Harrisburg, Harrisburg 
to Philadelphia, Philadelphia to New York, New York to 
Albany, Albany to Buffalo, Buffalo tc Cleveland, Cleve- 
land ti Columbus, Columbus to Indianopolis, Indianop- 
olis to Chicago, Chicago to Springfield. All the towns 
along the route were draped in mourning, and at the 
cities above mentioned, where the funeral train stopped, 
the cofBn was removed from the funeral car and borne in 
solemn and majestic procession through the streets to the 
principal public building in each city, where suitable 
ceremonies were performed, and the sad procession in 
each city witnessed by thousands of citizens and visitors 
from neighboring towns. The funeral train reached 
Springfield, 111. , on the 4th of May, where the body of 
the illustrious President lay in state until seen by thou- 
sands and tens of thousands of former friends and fellow- 
citizens, many of whom had known Mr. Lincoln from 
early manhood. The final ceremonies were then held, 
Bishop Simpson of the Methodist Episcopal church de- 
livering the oration, after which the body was consigned 
to the silent tomb in Oak Ridge Cemetery. 



PRESIDENT LINCOLN'S FAVORITE POEM. 



"oh! why should the spirit of mortal be proud." 

The evening of March 22nd, 1864, says F. B. Carpen- 
ter, was a most interesting one to me. I was with the 
President alone in his office for several hours. Busy- with 
pen and papers when I went in, he presently threw them 
aside and commenced talking to me of Shakspeare, of 
whom he was very fond. Little 'Tad, "his son, coming in, 
he sent him to the library for a copy of the plays, and 
then read to me several of his favorite passages. Re- 

lapsing into a sadder strain, he laid the book aside, and 
leaning back in his chair, said: 

* 'There is a poem which has been a great favorite with 
me for years, which was first shown to me when a young 
man by a friend, and which I afterwards saw and cut 
from a newspaper and learned by heart. I would, "he 
continued, ''give a great deal to know who wrote it, but 
I have never been able to ascertain." Then half closing 
his eyes, he repeated the verses to me, as follows: 

Oh! why should the spirit of mortal be proud.? — 
Like a swift-fleeting meteor, a fast-flying cloud, 
A flash of the lightning, a break of the v^ave, 
He passeth from life to his rest in the grave. 

The leaves of the oak and the willow shall fade, 
Be scattered around, and together belaid; 
And the young and the old, and the low and the high, 
Shall moulder to dust, and together shall lie. 

(476) 



Lincoln's favori te poem. 477 

The infant a mother attended and loved; 
The mother,. that infant's affection who froved, 
The husband, that mother and infant who blest,— 
Each, all, are away to their dwellings of rest. 

The maid on whose cheek, on whose brow, in whose eye. 
Shone beauty and pleasure — her triumphs are by; 
And the memory of those who loved her and praised. 
Are alike from the minds of the living erased. 

The hand of the king, that the sceptre hath borne, 
The brow of the priest, that the mitre hath worn. 
The eye of the sage, and the heart of the brave. 
Are hidden and lost in the depths of the grave. 

The peasant, whose lot was to sow and to reap. 
The herdsman, who climbed with his goats up the steep,^ 
The beggar, who wandered in search of his bread. 
Have faded away like the grass that we tread. 

The saint, who enjoyed the communion of heaven. 
The sinner, who dared to remain unforgiven, 
The wise and the foolish, the guilty and just. 
Have quietly mingled their bones in the dust. . 

So the multitude goes — like the flower or the weed^ 
That withers away to let others succeed; 
So the multitude comes — even those we behold, 
To repeat every tale that has often been told: 



4^8 LiNCoLN^s favojiite: poem. 

For we are the same our fathers have been; 
We see the sarae sights our fathers have seen; 
We drink the same stream, we view the same silii, 
And run the same course our fathers have run. 

The thoughts we are thinking, our fathers would think; 
From the death we are shrinking, our fathers would shrink, 
To the life we are clinging, they also would cling — 
But it speeds from us all like a bird on the wing. 

They loved — but the story we cannot unfold; 
They scorned — but the heart of the haughty is cold; 
They grieved — but no wail from their slumber will come; 
They joyed — but the tongue of their gladness is dumb. 

They died — ay, they died — we things that are now, 

That walk on the turf that lies o'er their brow, 

And make in their dwellings a transient abode. 

Meet the things that they met on their pilgrimage road 

Yea! hope and despondency, pleasure and pain. 

Are mingled together in sunshine and rain; 

And the smile and the tear, the song and the dirge, > 

Still follow each other, like surge upon surge. 

'Tis the wink of an eye, — 'tis the draught of a breath; 
From the blossom of health to the paleness of death, 
From the gilded saloon to the bier and the shroud: — 
Oh! why should the spirit of mortal be proud.? 

(This poem was written by Wm. Knox, a Scotchman.) 



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...16— BILL NYE'S CORDWOOD 

,. . . 17— TEN YEARS A COW-BOY. 471 pages 

Romances, Adventures, Life on the Plains, with e 
perience as Cow-boy, Stock Owner and Ranch< . 
with Descriptions of the Plains, Articles on Cattu 
and Sheep Raising, how to Make Money on tt 
Plains. Illustrated. 

..•.I&-GEMS OF TRUTH AND BEAUTY. 300 pages... 
By Talmage, Moody, Beecher, Spurgeon, Guthrie 
and Parker. 

• ..19— STORIES, SKETCHES AND LIFE of GEN. GAR 
FIELD, from the Log Cabin to the White House, 
with a full account of his Assassination, Death and 
Burial. 228 pages. Illustrated i .00 

...20— EVERY -DAY COOK BOOK and Encyclopedia 
OF Practical Recipes for Family Use. By Miss 
E.Neill. Economical, reliable and excellent. 324 pp. i 00 

. . . 21— GENERAL HANCOCK. Including his early history, 
war record, public life, and all the interestmg facts 
cf his career 50 

,..22— JETHRO WOOD, Inventor of the Modern Plough. 
An account of his life, services and trials, together 
with the facts subsequent to his death and incident 
to his great invention. Illustrated 50 

*,.23— THE LORD'S PRAYER, in the Principal Languages, 
Dialects and Versions of the World; printed in type 
and vernacular of the different nations. 200 pages. . i .00 
This little book is placed before the public for the 
purpose of giving, in a concise form, an introductory 
view of the principal languages and dialects of the 
world as they appear in print, and at the same time 
to aid in the cultivation of religjious thought and 
the adoration of the Supreme Being. 

...24— STORIES AND SKETCHES OF GEN. GRANT, 

at Home, Abroad, in Peace and in War, 8vo, 2 16 pp^ i .ou 



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